Remnant's Revolution
by The Ruler's Haven
Summary: At the height of the 5th Holy Grail War, Shirou confronts the contaminated Grail and Angra Mainyu, ready to destroy the vile abomination. Victory, however, became a pyrrhic one as the Grail had subjected both Shirou and itself to the Second True Magic. Forcibly pulled into a world where he once again has to raise his swords, will he save the world or will not even a Remnant remain?
1. Chapter 1

A burst of pain shot through Shirou as swords formed and exploded out of his body. It was agonizing, pure and simple. The feeling of blood pouring out of him, of his flesh being torn to ribbons, of his own mind collapsing upon itself and shattering due to Archer's arm overloading and changing Avalon's regeneration ability from regenerating him into forcing his muscles to turn into blades to stitch the wounds close, all of it was unbearable.

Even through the pain, Shirou stepped forward, his gait abysmally slow due to the sheer broken mess that _barely_ qualified as a body. He took another step before stumbling as the entire world around him faded to black before rushing back in a grainy context. Shit, had he just lost consciousness there? He couldn't even tell, it was too quick.

"Haaa…" Who said that? Was there someone else here? No, that's impossible. This was the center of the entire catastrophe of the Grail war and literally everything was on fire. So then… was...was that his voice?

Oh god. That actually might have been. His throat… it was so dry, so scratchy. Damn it.

His own body wasn't even cooperating with him. His vision was failing, his mind was breaking, his throat - wait was it? Yeah it was. - coughing from the immense amounts of smoke except it was coughing up blood and not saliva. Archer's reality marble was still turning his entire body into steel, swords exploding out of his body so often that Shirou was pretty sure that there was more blood in the crimson trail that he was leaving on the ground than his actual body.

That wasn't even the full extent of the damage on his body. The exhaustion plaguing him from multiple fights was dragging him down with every step.

The war, for that's all it could be called, calling such a clash as a mere fight would be insulting, between Saber Alter and Rider had costed him. When Shirou used his greatest shield, Rho Aias, a shield that had seven petals wielded by Aias the Great, he went through immeasurable pain. His own prana had exploded inside of him, and his mind had cracked slightly under the strain of maintaining the Noble Phantasm and trying not to shatter completely. Shirou knew he forgot something important, something that couldn't be replaced, a memory which belonged in his heart for the longest time. Yet he couldn't recall it and doubted that he would ever recall what exactly he forgot. The fact that the Aias had completely shattered also just inflicted him with more grievous injuries due to how when any part of the Aias is shattered he received a blowback. A single petal seen destroyed of the seven rings that covered the fiery heavens, or four rings that covered the fiery heavens seeing as he could only make four out of seven petals, would make his muscles spasm, two would bruise his bones, the third would break a couple of bones, and the fourth would snap his tendons like a twig that had had a mountain tossed upon it… or if Berserker had punched it.

Honestly, he couldn't even tell which would be more dangerous for the twig. And the twig was him. Where was he going with that?

Anyways, he used Rho Aias to help Rider's Bellerophon to beat Saber Alter's Excalibur Morgan. And then after that… even after trying to throw away the memories he couldn't help but hold onto them even through the emotional pain it caused. He remembered running up to Saber while simultaneously releasing the Azoth Sword.

He remembered… he remembered running up to her and stabbing her in the heart. He had, without hesitation, forced a dagger through the heart of one of the few people who had genuinely cared for him and showed him care and warmth. The thought nearly broke him.

The bloody fist fight with Kirei Kotomine hadn't helped anything either. The priest and himself had just engaged in a fight that was in essence two already dead men fighting for their goals with the priest going on the offense while he went on the defense. With Kotomine's deadly mastery of the Chinese martial art Bajiquan and his speed being higher than any Olympic athlete could even begin to compare to, he had the advantage. On the other hand, Shirou's defensive capabilities were monstrous with most of his entire body now being overtaken by the Reality Marble which had turned his body into blades. In essence, Shirou's only weak spot was his head as that hadn't transformed into steel just yet, even if it was an extremely obvious weak point. On the other hand (third hand?) both of them were already half dead so the entire fight was just a round of who will die first. In the end, all that had saved Shirou was Kotomine's heart provided to him by Angra Mainyu giving out a bit faster than Shirou's steel body.

Shirou had left the corpse of his most despicable enemy behind. Not even a glance was wasted on him. Not when he had something far more important to do.

The Grail itself was only fifty meters away from him now. That would have to do. He didn't think he could go on anymore. It felt like a single step would destroy the seams that barely held his body together.

He finally stopped concentrating on pushing past the pain of breathing and the agony of moving to gaze his sunset eyes upon the Grail.

It was horrific. That was a rather good word for it. Other words that would fit the Grail currently were 'what root forsaken thing was that?!' or 'not even Zelretch could come up with such a monstrosity' and his least favorite 'By the Kaleidoscope, if I marry Sakura would that be my son technically?'

For the very first time in his admittedly short life he wished Archer was here. Then Shirou could envelope him in the blast of Excalibur along with the Grail. He could hear him laughing! It was all his fault! Somehow! It was his influence! It was all because of his arm!

Dammit he wasn't crazy, YOU'RE crazy!

Anyways the Grail. Right. Right. Hadn't he just thought that? Or did he not?

Everything was the wrong. The wrong? Grammar doesn't work like that.

By the Root, his mind was shutting down faster than he thought. The acrid smell of smoke from the cursed fires were also addling the remains of his mind and he was pretty sure he needed that. He needed to end this and quick. Or else… Sakura would die.

Who was Sakura? He couldn't remember… but the name held importance to him. No, not the name. It wasn't the name that held importance to him but… a promise. A promise to… to what? To… to… he had to remember this. He HAD to, or else this wouldn't be worth it. Dragging his broken body across the rubble and floor of the cavern, his mind collapsing, his senses going mad, not bothering to wait for backup, using the left arm that wasn't his but WAS his, it couldn't be for nothing.

He had to, he NEEDED to. If he didn't, then he would cease to exist, he would shatter into fragments that nothing could heal except a miracle beyond even the Grail. He would become just like him, the man he would never become, the one who just wanted to be a hero, the one that was so selfish, the one that was a machine made from blades, the one that died alone upon the hill of swords and sacrificed his soul, sold his soul to the very devil, to be someone that could help a hundred nameless corpses and broke because he just lost everything too soon and too fast and he tried to hold on but it didn't work and it just didn't make sense he just wanted to be a hero and-

Something shattered within him. It didn't make any audible sound yet it was easy to tell something had shattered beyond all repair. The frontal lobe, the part of the brain involved in planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality and a variety of higher cognitive functions including behavior and emotions, had just caved in. It caved in and affected all other parts of his brain. It gouged straight through his parietal lobe, bent the tissue of the temporal lobe in an unnatural fashion, placing pressure onto the occipital lobe by making it support the gouged parietal lobe by itself and when it couldn't hold it anymore the occipital lobe flattened. The cerebellum and the brainstem tried to compensate but in turn were devastated with the spinal cord bending and nearly snapping.

In English, Shirou Emiya's brain had just went through a process so devastating that a bullet in the head would deal both less damage and would have given him a greater chance of survival.

Emiya Shirou had just died.

Yet he still didn't fucking fall.

Even more incomprehensibly, his body still continued to move to instincts far beyond Shirou's mind even as the steel that was enveloping his body increased its speed by over a thousand fold.

His body moved to the tune of the land of swords. Swords that were beyond limit, blades beyond counting, incalculable number of weapons of legends, blades far beyond the sight of men, swords that were blessed by the purest of maidens lying next to lances that would make the Devil himself cringe in disgust, blades that had no limits in their abilities, blades beyond the divine, an unlimited number of blades.

Shirou's broken corpse moved to the Song of Unlimited Blade Works. For though the mind had forgotten and the heart disregarded, the soul remembered and sang about the promise.

They sang about the Promised Day.

All within Unlimited Blade Works sang and shouted, screamed and sobbed, threatened and begged, yet all raptured, about the Promised Day. The Promised Day to go see the cherry blossoms fall.

The soul refused to forget and forced its master's broken body to move even after all the joints and muscles needed for movement had forever frozen in the wake of Steel.

Yet even through the shouts from all within Unlimited Blade Works two soft voices somehow cut through the volume, their cries resounding throughout Shirou's soul, their very essence born from greatest dreams of Mankind. Promised Victory and Utopia.

The two greatest Noble Phantasms of Camelot sang, Avalon supporting the body of Shirou so it could stand upright and Excalibur about to vanquish the monstrosity before them, the two greatest Noble Phantasms of his Servant Arturia, the King of Knights.

Even in death, death by his hands, Arturia still stood by Emiya Shirou, lending her warmth and comfort and prowess in battle. Even in death, Arturia stood by her honor. Truly no one else could be called the King of Knights rather than she.

On the Grail's side, even through it's only semi-sentient state, it recognized the danger of the boy, no, man, no, master, no, the last master and victor of the Fifth Holy Grail War, before itself.

Angra Mainyu had completely corrupted the Grail, turning the once pristine gold into an blackish eldritch horror that was composed of a tower completely enveloped by a crimson, oozing aura whose mere presence perverted the leylines that existed in Fuyuki. At the top of the tower an opening was visible, looking eerily similar to gaping maw of Hell itself. The image completed itself with the bursts of scarlet liquid that were so dangerous that if you were even brushed with it you might as well leap into the flames of hell for all of your chances of survival. Three protrusions were visible from the sides of the opening, looking far too similar to claws of a ravenous beast for anyone's liking, each as tall as the height of Shirou multiplied by around ten with a slightly smaller fourth one poking out at 'only' five times the height of Shirou. Considering he was a decent height of five foot five, rather large in Japan but not extraordinary, the Grail was stupidly huge.

The entire Grail was ghoulish to the extreme, it had black markings cutting across the entire figure that resembled the ribs of a human body with an giant X crossing over it. Beneath the ribs were gigantic eyes staring blankly over the cavern giving all who gazed at them a chill that broke into and completely covered their entire body, forgoing the saying 'chill of Death' for a far more apt 'you're already dead you just haven't realized it quite yet.'

Of course even with the overall horrifying exterior of the Grail, nothing could quite compare to the aura it unleashed nor to what was… within the protrusions.

The aura it unleashed… it was… there was no good way to describe it. The closest he could relate the aura to was being being incinerated and frozen at the same time, diving into an active and erupting volcano while simultaneously feeling if you were dunked into liquid nitrogen. It was feeling as if your bones had suddenly shattered like fragile panes of glass had just been struck by a hammer and sent hurling into the depths of your body, impaling every organ, every tissue, every microscopic cell and somehow being conscious enough to tear open your own throat by just the act of screaming.

A knife through the heart, decapitation through execution, imploding upon one's self, drowning, electroshock torture, trampled upon, flattened, having the wind stolen from your lungs and being unable to breathe, mutilation, death by blunt force trauma, the chest slowly caving in until the ribs break open the heart by its own weight, the heart exploding, having your head being cracked open like a walnut within the hands of Berserker, the list goes on and on and on and on and _on_.

What was within the protrusions were… there were genuinely no way to accurately describe the horror. There was a sphere of literal _darkness_ just floating casually above the Grail, in the middle of the Grail's claws. It looked like the void itself had come to visit Earth. A vortex that would swallow the entire Earth up, Gaea and Alaya, Time and Space, the World and the Reverse World, the Primordial Seas and the Impermeable Land. Everything and anything will be swallowed up and broken down by that… by that black hole that stood at the center it.

However, there is one thing that will never be absorbed by that black hole, one thing that could never be broken.

And the Last Master before the Grail had access to that weapon, the weapon that would unleash the flood of power that couldn't be broken. The Last Master was a threat to its existence.

This… this couldn't be allowed to stand.

Barely noticeable, the vortex ever so slightly began to grow in size in preparation of the act that could either save itself… or doom it if it didn't work right.

Angra Mainyu… he was a hero, a hero that could be summoned from the Throne of Heroes. He was believed to be the Persian God of Darkness but in actuality, he was but a villager, a farmer at that. He was chosen at random one day to forever be known as "All The World's Evils." This was due to the human nature of always needing someone to blame for catastrophes, whether or especially when it is out of their control.

This scapegoat would be designated to be a daemon and be chosen to be the reason for all the calamities afflicting the village. Simultaneously, he would be chosen to be the source of all the world's evil and by his existence, the villagers would have to be good by nature. So they continuously tortured him until he went insane. They captured him, beat him, carved every word that cursed mankind onto his body, forced every sin imaginable upon him, took out bits and pieces of him slowly, defiled his mind with absolute evil, and held him responsible for all of it in the world. They would not even allow him to die until he succumbed to old age.

Ironically, the torture they placed onto him wasn't even near as damaging as what came next. Even throughout all of his tortures, Angra Mainyu was able to keep his psyche… relatively intact. Distorted but intact, mainly through the use of using the pain that was always racking through his body as a way of emotionally castrating himself.

What had come next took that distortion and turned it up to maximum and then beyond, twisting him in such a different way that even a Reality Marble user would be baffled by the sheer difference in views compared to that of a normal person.

However in the end, it awakened him. He had finally awoken to his name. Angra Mainyu, the God of Darkness, the incarnation and wielder of All The Evil In The World.

He stood by and observed humanity for millennia even while his body withered away, far too weak to be able to remain lasting through out the eons even with Angra Mainyu using his own power to support it.

Or maybe because of his power, as even if Angra Mainyu was a God in the end his power lied in Darkness, Corruption, and Mankind. Three things that were extremely similar in the case that all were vile to him.

In the end he had died, from rituals that Angra Mainyu himself had commenced that took ingredients spread across time and were harder to acquire than a glimpse of humility from Gilgamesh, such as the ashes from the True Death of the eternally reviving bird: the Phoenix. It was strange idea, a God dying! Yet it was possible and so, in the famous words of H.P. Lovecraft, "That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die." And even the Gods could eternally lie. Yet in his death, he had hilariously became a Heroic Spirit since he was technically a martyr whose existence put the minds of his people to comfort and helped ease their confusion, no matter how forced it was.

He was summoned through the fools that thought summoning a God of Darkness would be a fantastic idea to actually execute and NOT having any backlash on a wish granting artifact of immense power, one of the three founding families of the Holy Grail War no less, the Einzberns.

He had observed humanity for eons and yet he still couldn't help the awe he had for boundaries humans continued to push with their stupidity.

That bastard was right. "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the former." Einstein was a dick, but he was a truthful and smart dick.

Anyways, since the Einzberns couldn't truly summon the power of a God, no matter the amount of support they received from the Grail, they got Angra Mainyu in his human form.

Weak. Frail.

Pathetic.

He was easily one of the weakest Servant in the entire war, and most likely in the entire history of Heroic Spirits. What a colossal fuck up that had been. He had been slain in the first damn battle of the Third Holy Grail War.

However, that led to opportunity. He had corrupted the Grail where he awaited the chance to be reborn by fulfilling the wish of the victor of the Fourth Holy Grail War. In his first life he was bounded by rules and regulations of higher powers far beyond himself. Even further beyond the powers of Alaya, Gaia, and the other Gods. However being reborn was a complete loophole in these regulations, one that couldn't be truly foreseen, and so when Angra Mainyu would be reborn he would be in the clear to raze the civilizations of the humans and salt the earth where they once stood.

Enter the bane of his life: the absolutely fucked up till the ninth circle of hell and back Emiya Family, apparently now famous for the family that is able to create Magi that would be slapped with a Sealing Designation so fast that the Lancer class would be stunned. The Winner and Last Master of the Fourth Holy Grail war: Enter Kiritsugu Emiya, The Magus Killer.

A freelance assassin that held the motto of following the path that lead to the least amount of deaths and saved more than killed. If ten million deaths could ensure the prolonged survival of one hundred million Kiritsugu Emiya would kill them himself, them being man, woman, child, or infant be damned. Magus killer he might have been to the Magus community, however Kiritsugu had been employed by many governments in the human world too and picked up quite a few nicknames there. Most prominent being the deadly assassin: Thousand Night Kiritsugu.

A foolish man that had the foolish ideal of becoming a 'hero of justice' and the silly conception of world peace actually being possible without lobotomizing the entire human race or having a singular enemy powerful enough that it requires the focus and destructive potential of the entire human race or else the apocalypse, ragnarok, or whatever world destroying event begins.

Kiritsugu was also the master of the Saber Servant and the King of Knights, King Arthur, who was summoned by the lost EX Barrier Noble Phantasm Avalon, a barrier which rendered the wielder completely invulnerable to the point that not even an Anti-World Noble Phantasm could even brush the bearer of Avalon when activated. He ruthlessly took apart the Master of Lancer, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald, the Master of Caster, Ryuunosuke Uryuu, and the Master of Assassin and the later Master of the Archer Servant, the King of Heroes Gilgamesh, Kirei Kotomine.

Kiritsugu Emiya and Kirei Kotomine fought to a standstill till both were consumed by the black mud of the Holy Grail. Both could have been chosen for the chance of receiving the opportunity of asking for a wish but Angra Mainyu had chosen Kiritsugu for a simple sentence that Kiritsugu had uttered earlier in the Fourth Holy Grail War.

"For that, even if I am to carry 'all the evils of this world' – it won't matter. If that can save the world, then I'd gladly accept it."

That line had interested him enough to declare Kiritsugu as the winner of the Fourth Holy Grail War even with Kotomine still surviving and had granted Kiritsugu the opportunity of wielding the power of the Grail. Once the wish was cast Angra Mainyu would have awoken and have exterminated the human race like the rats they are. They have the capability to be pets and might occasionally alleviate your boredom and provide you with amusement but on the whole they were a plague carrying species whose existence would only harm everyone and everything surrounding them and their deaths would benefit the planet in total.

Though that didn't really matter. He'd kill them because he wanted to. It was the whole 'murdering someone for revenge and the greater good even though you didn't really care for the latter' shtick.

However Kiritsugu had denied the wish upon his horror of realizing the Grail was corrupted and ordered his servant to use her extremely powerful Noble Phantasm, a sword renowned throughout the ages and across the world, Excalibur. The legendary holy sword known by all swung once, only once, and Angra Mainyu's entire process of rebirth had been stalled for another ten years, a full _decade_ more. However the Fae crafted blade could only destroy the covering for what was inside, akin to being able to pierce the cocoon of a caterpillar without actually destroying said caterpillar on the inside.

After all, even with the strength of the God blessed steel, Excalibur couldn't match up to the sheer power needed to destroy the contents of the Grail and the mud of Angra Mainyu. To be able to fully vaporize the mud one would need a weapon that could only be classified as an Anti-World Noble Phantasm or an Anti-Planetary Noble Phantasm due to how Angra Mainyu draws its own power from all over the world and as consequence you would similarly need a weapon capable of destroying the world to vanquish it, as long as you attack the Lesser Grail.

As a consequence of destroying the 'cocoon' holding the mud, Angra Mainyu's essence spread throughout the entire city of Fuyuki and converted it into a bonfire that lit up the night and took over five hundred lives.

Since then a decade had passed and in the mess that was the Fifth Holy Grail War, Angra Mainyu once again had the chance to be reborn. However this time… this time Angra Mainyu was _infinitely_ closer to being reborn compared to ten years ago. Even without the wish of the Holy Grail War victor it was obvious that Angra Mainyu would be born into the world to crush it in the weight of sins.

The combination of the mud of Angra Mainyu and the Holy Grail had to led to the point where even without the wish he would still be reborn. _However_ , that was his simultaneous weakness as well. In the Fourth Holy Grail War, the reason Excalibur couldn't destroy the mud contained within the Holy Grail was because it was just that; _contained_. It was like shattering a glass cup which held some tea within by dropping it; just because the cup was destroyed doesn't mean the tea would suddenly vanish. Rather, the tea would just spread out over the floor and would require you to clean it.

The combination of the mud of Angra Mainyu and the Holy Grail had to led to the point where even without the wish Angra Mainyu would still be reborn, as long as he had some time. In the Fourth Holy Grail War, the only reason that the mud wasn't destroyed by Excalibur was because the blade had been swung at, not the Greater Grail, but the _Lesser_ Grail.

The Lesser Grail was the 'holder' which the Einzberns created for the War. It was made to hold the spirits of all the Servants killed during the war and once a certain number of Servants were killed, the Lesser Grail is activated and triggers the response of the Greater Grail. The Greater Grail is the actual wish-granting artifact which is located underneath the Ryudo Temple during the 5th Holy Grail War.

Now, however, Angra Mainyu had access to an artifact of immense power, to be specific, a wish granting artifact of immense power. Something as banal as _the prayer of Glory_ , no matter the power of the blade, could not, _should not_ , ever block his way of rebirth. His entire body was composed from a cocoon that was capable of having a direct link to the _Root_ for Akasha's sake!

The vortex grew exponentially larger, nearly covering half of the entire Grail in its pitch black shade, the void itself somehow churning within as if it was just a simple infant trying to swallow down food placed into its own mouth, yet instead of food this 'infant' was actually a God of Darkness trying to rip apart the world itself.

Gravity itself shifted to the whims of the God. The force exerted from the planet itself was denied and shifted towards accomplishing the purpose of Angra Mainyu. Shirou was pulled towards the void and swallowed by the Grail.

….

Or he would have been. He _should_ have been.

Instead of that logical outcome steel blades exploded from the bottom of his feet, gouging through the rubble he stood upon, through the rock, through the soil, through all that stood within its way. The blades carved over a tenth of a mile through the planet itself to stand against the gravity that just nearly inverted itself.

" **I** …" A voice rang out through the vocal cords that had been nearly split apart by the rumble of the voice that sounded out like a titan from most outlandish of legends.

It only made sense. After all, this was a boy that had less training than a ten year old taking basic karate that had been flung, no, fucking _skydived_ into a war whose partakers had come from all across time and were renowned to the point that each name were spoken with reverence and awe by even the most uneducated individuals. It was to the point that if you _didn't_ know them it was complete blasphemy in and of itself. And he, not just survived, but _fought_ against these behemoths of legends… and _won_.

" **I am the Bone of my Sword.** "

 _Judging the concept of creation_

 _Hypothesizing the basic structure_

 _Duplicating the composition material_

 _Imitating the skill of its making_

He _won_. A teenager went against the Perfect Ruler King Arthur with Excalibur equipped, went against the Hound of Ireland Cu Chulainn, went against the beast who with a single glance can turn any human to stone Medusa, went against the unstoppable Hero of Ancient Greece Heracles, went against a manifestation of a _God_ that appeared as a shadow that consumed even the King of Heroes Gilgamesh… and _won_ a couple of times. A _teenager_ won against spirits of _legendary heroes from all across time and space_.

 _Sympathizing with the experience of its growth_

 _Reproducing the accumulated years_

Now all he had was one more obstacle in front of him. It was so, _so_ laughable that he actually came so far. The chances of the dying were so astronomically high anyone who that had even a passing knowledge of basic statistics would have a seizure.

All he had was just one more obstacle. And he had the key to destroying the wall in front of him.

 _Excelling every manufacturing process_

 **Trace ON!**

 _Tracing completed_

" _Shirou." A soft voice spoke as the blade in his hand shined to life. "I hope you know what you're doing."_

" _C'mon you should know me by now."_

" _So not at all."_

 _Shirou snorted._

" _That sounds about right."_

" _Quite. Shirou...that blade is a Last Phantasm. It was crafted by the Fae and forged by the World itself. If you use it… it will break you. Your mind and self will shatter like glass._

" _Yeah."_

" _And you don't care?"_

" _Wouldn't you know all about it? Doing your duty… even if it would cost you your life, your happiness, your everything."_

 _A grim smile appeared, looking out of place on the delicate face._

" _My example is not quite the best to follow. You know the ending which awaits. It was not a life which I would wish upon my worst enemy."_

" _I have seen down that path even further than you have and I hope ever will. I turned into a bitter man whose existence I refuse to acknowledge. A man who seeks to end his own suffering by casting himself straight into purgatory through a paradox. I will never become that man, I would take my blade and strike myself down before I ever descend into that hell for others."_

" _And is that your only reason?"_

" _Of course not. That's at best number three. Number two is that Rin would kick my ass if that ever happened. And Illya. Oh gods, Illya. I'd rather face all twenty seven of the Dead Apostle Ancestors at once. I might survive them. Rin and Illya… yeah, no."_

 _Finally a soft giggle, breaking through and looking exactly right on her face rather than that constantly neutral mask she always displayed to her subjects. It was beautiful._

" _And number one?"_

" _You already know. I promised her to see the cherry blossoms with her. I might not be able to fulfill that promise but I'll make sure she can at least see it for both of us."_

" _Of course. Shirou...it's almost time."_

" _Yeah… can you… Can you be with me… until the end?"_

" _Of course. You needn't have asked."_

" _Even after what happened?"_

" _Especially after what happened. Thank you Shirou."_

" _But… I struck you down. I plunged a dagger through your heart."_

" _You released me from a prison that kept me chained through madness incarnate. I owe you everything Shirou. Do not fret and despair, I was blackened and swallowed by the ocean of misery and hate within me. You saved me Shirou."_

" _I… thank you. Thank you so much. For sticking with me. For being with me even now."_

" _Of course. You carry both my blade and my sheathe deep within your very soul Shirou. I will forever be with you. To the end and beyond Shirou. Never doubt that."_

" _I won't. Never again. Thank you… Arturia."_

 _The Prayer of Glory shined into existence, the only response that was needed. Even through death she protected him. Her sword carried by an unbreakable will, a regal poise that struck through the clouds and pierced the heavens themselves. The red and darkened sky, corrupted through by the Grail, split open and light from the sun shined down through the shattered remains of the roof of the cave. The beams of light shined onto where Shirou was, radiating his position and glinting off the golden blade._

In desperation, the void grew tens of times larger. The black hole encompassed the entirety of the back of the cave wall. Shirou stood strong against the gravity, and even with his broken body and shattered mind his will as unbreakable as the primordial universe itself.

Too bad the ground that his swords were plunged into didn't share the same kind of perseverance.

The ground the Shirou's blades were plunged into ripped itself apart and flew at nearly terminal velocity towards the void. The cave, constructed for resisting a stupidly large amount of magic, tore itself from the world around it and basically teleported towards the Grail. Shirou was unfortunately attached to the flying pieces of rubble through the previous action of using it as a support.

Shirou flew headfirst into the void while the Grail itself twisted apart and was sucked into its own creation, now resembling an ebony sideways whirlpool composed of despair and pain incarnated.

* * *

A flare of pain shot up her leg every time she nudged it even a minuscule amount. Shearing through her heel was an arrow, formed from what might have been a form of midnight stone, which had somehow disintegrated and reformed to bypass her thrown shield and pierce her. She tried getting up but the pain flared, as if her leg was suddenly coated with lava. She fell back down and impacted onto the cold, hard, cracked, and unforgiving floor that used to be the pristine pavement of Headmaster Ozpin's office.

The clacking of high heels reminded her of the opponent that was ready to kill her. Her mind quickly assessed the current situation once again, as it did over a thousand times during this one battle. Her opponent has the power of the Fall Maiden, leading to large or even a complete control of the elements, no, complete control of nature itself. Cinder had used mainly fire during the duel, with some minimal amounts of lightning. She had large amounts of combat ability and, looking at the way she adapted to a large amount of her own moves, Cinder also had large amounts of real combat experience to go along with it. She somehow made arrows and a bow out of stone or some other non-metallic material and is able to rapidly disassemble and reassemble the arrows to pass through objects and deal debilitating and fatal hits, most likely a semblance of some sort. She was also very accurate with the bow and arrow and was able to create some blades as a backup weapon. She had some aura left, hopefully not that much left from her attacks using the gears of the tower as a blunt weapon with her power over polarity, but how much is still a mystery.

For backup…she had a dragon, specifically a Grimm Dragon. And from legends, she wouldn't normally believe in legends but considering the fact that a dragon actually exists along with the four maidens of the four seasons while both were believed to be fairy tails she was willing to suspend her disbelief, that dragons could breath insanely hot fire that was bordering on plasma. A single errant breath and she would be annihilated, and she doubted even ash would remain of her.

Meanwhile, she herself had a shield that was out of her immediate reach but could be recalled with her Semblance, no aura, she could still use her Semblance of polarity but only a tiny bit and not nearly enough to harm and kill Cinder, and a shot heel which drastically reduces her mobility and effectiveness of her fighting style which is based on using multiple flips and movement to disorient her opponent. It was already reduced from the start with her tendency to use her semblance to adjust her opponent's grip or stance to create an opening she could take advantage of, but with Cinder not using any metal she couldn't use her Semblance directly on the new maiden. Her mechashifting blade had been broken, and due to that she had lost her main offensive weapon.

Final result: It would take a miracle to survive, much less win, and she doubted that one would be coming any time soon. She would most likely die here.

"My dear Pyrrha Nikos." Cinder crooned. Pyrrha hated that voice, the conceit that just _oozed_ out with every word, the tone pointed out that she was nothing more than a bug, the voice that Pyrrha knew would be the last thing she would ever hear. "It wasn't your fault you know. It was Ozpin's. He promised you a power that was simply beyond you, a power that was never yours and never to _be_ yours. A power that was _mine._ "

She summoned a fireball in her left hand and let Pyrrha see the roaring flames that could end any man.

"Even before the powers of the fall maiden I was extraordinary. A strategic mind, a beautiful body, a large amount of aura, and a willingness to do _whatever_ it takes to accomplish my goals. These all belonged to me _far_ before _my_ Maiden powers. These powers just exemplified it. You would never be able to use this power to its full potential like I would."

She formed the bow once again, knowing that while Pyrrha wouldn't be able to dodge it in time with her heel damaged and unable to move with her leg.

"So take comfort in that at least before you die. That the powers you were promised will be used by a far more capable individual."

"Wait!" Pyrrha exclaimed out loud, desperation easily trembling and cracking her voice. Surprisingly Cinder actually did wait, if only for a moment. Pyrrha didn't know why, there was no way Cinder did it out of kindness seeing as her plan of ruining Vale and obtaining the powers of the Maiden killed thousands and is continuing to kill even more, but she wasn't wasting this chance. "Do you," her voice cracked and trembled just a minuscule amount but she continued. "Do you believe in destiny?" Destiny. A simple word but one that meant so much. A word that meant that free will is just an illusion, that all events were premeditated for an individual before they were even born till the day that they die.

Was it her destiny to grow up alone and isolated from the world, constantly training to improve herself at the cost of her childhood? It seemed so as even her Semblance, which is a power derived from her very soul, attracts only cold and unfeeling metal. Was it her destiny to die here, less than an hour after she finally kissed Jaune, the person who she admires above anyone else in her life, and even loves?

If that is the case… then she accepts it. She might not be able to survive here but she can die knowing that Jaune is safe and well. And if her destiny is to die here, if fate deems that Cinder must have the power of the Maiden and kill Pyrrha Nikos then she will accept it in the end. She struggled in the fight and gave it her all to defeat Cinder but if she died here she could accept that. It seemed her belief that Fate was just a final goal that everyone works towards their entire life was… false.

Cinder leveled the bow and arrow towards Pyrrha's face. "Yes." She said simply, being completely serious, maybe as respect for the warrior, maybe sympathy towards Pyrrha, or maybe another reason entirely. "I do."

Pyrrha closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate.

Images flashed by at her time at Beacon, the happiest days of her life.

Nora, the Queen of the castle, the pancake killer, the 'together but not together-together' girl,the hurricane of chaos herself, was the epitome of freedom. She had boundless energy and was the most happy go lucky girl she had ever seen, even more than Ruby. She was part of the chaos inserted in every day that just made everything fun and more exciting. She also took a sadistic and somewhat disturbing amount of joy in the idea of breaking someone's legs.

Ren was the only quiet one in team JNPR. With a calm demeanor and an endless pit of patience it seemed like he could get through any problem or complication with a calm head without his emotions coming into play. He was childhood friends with Nora, and somehow managed to keep up with her even with his somewhat lazy personality.

Jaune, the leader of the Team JNPR, wasn't really all that much compared to his teammates. Compared to the immense strength of Nora, the calm judgement of Ren, and her own overwhelming fighting ability, there really wasn't much he could do. However the one thing he had in strides was a stupidly overwhelming amount of perseverance. He tried to fulfill his wish of becoming a huntsman by asking for training by his father and when that didn't work, he later successfully attempted to join Beacon by forging papers and submitting them in an effort to fulfill his goal. While Pyrrha would never say that was a smart idea, quite the opposite in fact, and dislikes even thinking of the idea of cheating, she would admit to being reluctantly impressed with the lengths Jaune went to achieve his dream. He trained quite a bit with her in order to improve himself and prove to himself that he belonged at Beacon and he succeeded. Jaune started showing signs of improvement at fighting and started truly becoming a Huntsman. He never went back on his word after he gives a promise, actually willing to even put on a dress and show up to the ball when he gave his word to wear a dress if she never got a date and publicly humiliate himself without a hint of remorse. "An Arc never goes back on his word," he said.

Trembles started occurring around Beacon. It was as if the entire planet of Remnant itself started to shiver from what was about to happen. Space itself begin to contort ever so slightly, and a single slash mark of the purest white, barely a foot long, appeared in the middle of the air near the base of the tower of where the Dragon stood. It also happened to be the same tower that Pyrrha and Cinder stood on, fighting their fated duel.

Jaune Arc never stopped fighting against his fate, and all with a smile on his face. Even when nobody believed in him, when his own parents said to not be afraid to move back home when he told them he was going to try and join Beacon, he still stood up and tried to achieve his dreams no matter what.

She suddenly remembered that training video she recently recorded for Jaune to practice with. The one where she tried and once again failed to confess her feelings to him. "I'll always be here with you," she had said.

Emerald eyes flashed as Pyrrha opened her eyes. The pain caused from her injury flared up but was ignored.

What...what the hell was she doing?! Giving up? Giving up on the idea of meeting team JNPR again?! To see Nora insert her craziness into everyday life in the way she would have never imagined before coming to Beacon? To see her feminine male friend Ren and his thousand yard stare that should frankly only belong on to witnesses of the bloodiest of wars whenever he sees Nora's antics? To see Jaune again? She said that she would forever be by his side! To give him support and believe in him whenever he needs it!

He never went back on his word. She wouldn't either!

The white slash in the air seemingly crumpled, space contorted and reality fractured as it made way to another realm. It was like reality was being folded and swelled up like some abomination of a 5th dimensional version of origami. The air was literally _pulled_ away in strips which led to revealing a purplish-black substance which seemed to flow like a river that was composed of dimensional energies. It pulsed and oozed sickly, dropping a bit of its essence onto the ground beneath it before immediately evaporating and leaving no trace behind.

Unknown to all truly sentient beings, this phenomenon attracted Grimm like moths to a flame which was delaying two huntresses trying to approach the tower on which Cinder and Pyrrha stood on. The two girls desperately tried to cut down all the Grimm but for every Beowulf or Ursa they cut down, it seemed like three more would take its place.

Seeing the fire return to Pyrrha's eyes, Cinder couldn't help but sneer in disgust. While she respected the strength of will the huntress in training was displaying, there comes a point when it is obvious that the scenario was helpless.

The arrow was released, and true to its mark it flew towards Pyrrha's chest. Pyrrha tried to dodge but even she could tell that it wouldn't make a difference. At best the projectile would give her a couple painful extra minutes to live, at worst it would kill her immediately.

Reality unraveled and broke apart as it couldn't hold the stress of blocking the way of the magical artifact into this dimension. A night colored portal fully opened up only to have a similarly colored magical wish granting artifact rocketing out of it with a boy attached to the heavily malformed artifact by having his left hand morphed into a steel blade and having it dug into the relic. He was dragged along with the relic like a perverted form of tag straight from hell and struck a building at near terminal velocity, though the artifact that he was attached to took the brunt of the impact.

Due to the impact, a large portion of the building fell away and crumbled away. However it didn't just take the debris down when the building was struck.

Much to Cinder's surprise, Pyrrha Nikos tumbled down into the pit that had just appeared beneath her, the arrow striking higher than intended due to the fall and shearing through Pyrrha's left shoulder.

Shirou Emiya and the Grail had just appeared into the world of Remnant and already events had not only shifted but had been completely razed to the ground.

Nothing would ever be the same. For good or bad… that couldn't be quite decided on at this point of time.

All anybody knew is that following years would shake the planet of Remnant to its very core and have consequences for all living beings.

* * *

Omake: What Angra Mainyu's first act would be if he was reborn.

A boombox was placed in the middle of a random suburb in the middle of New York City. No one knew that this event would lead to the apocalypse.

Angra Mainyu was dressed in an old western outfit, complete with a cowboy hat and revolver in his pocket which everyone could see was actually just a nerf gun. He had already drawn a quite a huge crowd, completely due the small amount of aura he spread throughout the air which had a slight amount of hypnosis agent but only to draw everybody to his position.

He clicked a single key on the boombox and a fiddle began to play out quite loudly. Angra Mainyu grabbed a microphone from… somewhere and ramped the volume to maximum. He then somehow hacked into every electronic in the world… through a microphone which has Wifi.

And then he started singing. Surprisingly good too.

"When the devil's a bit too busy… and death's a bit too much.

They call on me, by name you see

For my own special touch

To the gentlemen I'm Miss. Fortune.

To the ladies I'm Sir. Prize.

But call me by any name

Anyway it's all the same~"

By this point, Angra Mainyu had gathered an even larger crowd. Many of them were singing the lyrics also, and beers were being tossed around by a couple of people who had ransacked the nearby stores. Things were getting a bit hectic.

"I'm the fly in your soup

I'm the pebble in your shoes

I'm the pea beneath your bed

I'm the bump on every head

I'm the peel on which you slip

I'm the pin in every hip

I'm the thorn in your side

Makes you wiggle and writhe"

By this point most of New York City was in chaos. Cars were crashing into nearly everything and it got to the point where watching Rick and Morty was considered sane. Everything was going to hell. And that was only for the few in Angra Mainyu's line of sight, the rest of the world was most likely following suit, if slower since he wasn't directly at those locations.

Unseen to everyone, dimensional energies were thrumming and splitting apart in the face of Angra Mainyu's choice of music. The Reverse World, Alaya, and Gaia were conjoining. Rifts in space were opening up and breaking into the world like a little kid breaking open a pinata at a birthday party. Except instead of candy these cracks were spilling out world ending demons and Gods.

"It's so easy when you're evil

This is the life, you see

The devil tips his hat to me

I do it all because I'm evil

And i do it all for free

Your tears are all the pay i'll ever need"

Hilariously, after saying those lines Angra Mainyu saw a young looking male in a suit look directly at him and grin. He then took off his top hat and gave a sweeping bow to Angra Mainyu and when he stood back up Angra Mainyu could see his eyes burn with crimson flames and madness hidden within. He then suddenly shifted genders into a seductive looking female before giving a call me gesture towards Angra Mainyu and bursting into flames. When the flames fizzled out no one was there and no evidence pointed towards anyone being there in the first place. Even when some deities rewinded time to make sure, nobody but Angra Mainyu could see the man, no, Devil that had stood there. Scary guy. Gal. Whatever.

Angra Mainyu gave a wicked grin before continuing to sing his song.

"While there's children to make sad

While there's candy to be had

While there's pockets left to pick

While there's grannies left to trip

Down the stairs i'll be there i'll be waiting 'round the corner

It's a game. I'm glad i'm in it

Cause there's one born every minute"

Stock markets crashed and electronics fizzled out around the world. The World was plunged back into the Dark Ages. Leylines all around the World were somehow drained of all Mana and was instead used to allow Angra Mainyu to project his voice and aura into the minds and spirits of people worldwide and soon Magus's were exposed to the World by a couple who were driven by the Chaos infecting them to use Thaumaturgy in public. The Clocktower's only saving grace was that the internet had long since been annihilated and so information couldn't be spread around at the speed of gossip in high school. Which is about a couple million times faster than the speed of light.

Angra Mainyu continued to sing his song to the end. When he ended the song it seemed that the entire world held its breath. What could he do that was worse than singing Voltaire? That song already caused millions of deaths worldwide, what else could he do?

In response to the unspoken question Angra Mainyu just gave a sadistic grin and clicked another key on the boombox. A couple of bells rang out and claps from an audience rang out.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Angra Mainyu shouted out. "Welcome to the main event!"

"Let's get _ready to_ _ **RRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!**_ " Angra Mainyu shouted out in a deep bass tone to the world. He drew his nerf gun and shot the one plastic bullet within it into the air, signifying the start of the event.

Disco themes rang out as the world plunged into a bloodbath never seen before, unwilling to fight but having no choice in face of the inane power of disco music and boxing references.

At the very end, all that stood were demons, phantasmal beasts, and Gods Angra Mainyu had released through his singing. Humanity was dead and buried and he finally had gotten his revenge.

"Idiots." He chuckled. "They never even realized that they didn't have to fight. After all, boxing is mostly fake."

And that was the story of how Angra Mainyu started the apocalypse and wiped out humanity with nothing more than a boombox, a cowboy outfit, a couple of references, and a nerf gun.

 **Oh God it's finally done. The first chapter for Remnant's revolution is finally done. This is The Ruler's Haven here. This is my writing account. If you want to see my favorite stories go to xenosaiyan. I like to separate my reading time and writing time so having these two different accounts work.**

 **Don't read those written fanfics on Xenosaiyan though. They were so shitty, I feel ashamed even having them on this website.**

 **By the way, for this fanfic I will always post the chapter after I'm done writing the next chapter. That way if I ever fall behind I can just post the next one.**

 **I don't think I've ever seen an Omake where Angra Mainyu sings When You're Evil by Voltaire. Hell, it's basically the perfect song for him. Why has no one ever done that before? I don't even think I've ever seen an Omake where anybody sings When You're Evil.**

 **I think all the chapters should be near this amount of words, if not a bit more. I'm typing the next chapter as I speak and it might be a bit bigger than this chapter so look forward to that.**

 **Before leaving though, I'd like to thank my friend TheMaster4444. Without you this fic would have never come into existence, much less as polished as it is. Thank you so much for that. Your Fanfic inspired me to write this, even as we joked around a ton. I owe you quite a bit for all of this. Thank you.**

 **This is The Ruler's Haven signing out! Please review as it helps me become better! I take your advice in consideration quite a bit, you can ask the people that have reviewed already for that!  
**

 **Thank you all so much!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

The wound didn't hurt surprisingly. Pyrrha didn't think that was normal, in fact she was pretty sure that being shot in the shoulder was supposed to be rather painful. But it wasn't. There was a feeling there but it wasn't pain it was… something else.

Everything was dull, like she was underwater and trying to listen to the sounds above. All of it was faded, dull and gray. She knew she was falling but she couldn't quite muster up the dedication to care.

'I wonder if this is how Ren feels towards Nora's antics?' She thought errantly. 'Then again, I'm pretty sure that's for all of us. We certainly don't react to her like we did at the beginning of Beacon.' The thought made her giggle a bit. 'Team JNPR, the chaos conquerors. If you need a team to keep a cool head you need Team JNPR. "This is a very volatile situation!" They would say. "Are you sure you're up to it?" Then we would just stare back at them with the thousand mile stare usually on Ren and say "Chaos? You don't even know the meaning of Chaos. You had to deal with volatile situations with hundreds of lives at stake. We had to deal with Nora." And then we would skydive out of a bullhead for no reason with random explosions in the background. It would be just like a Spruce Willis movie.' She closed her eyes. 'Yeah that'd be fun to do with the rest of the team… wait.'

The world rushed back into definition. The color of crimson red replaced the dull gray as she fell, screams of pure rage emanating from above her washed away the quiet of the moment, the smell of acrid smoke followed the dissipating sense of nothingness.

"Oh SHIT!" Pyrrha yelled. She normally didn't cuss but she was falling to her death, she was pretty sure she had some leeway. Her aura was too depleted to tank the fall, her foot was useless, there was debris plummeting after her, her left shoulder wasn't cooperating a damn after being shot there as well, and _she didn't have aura to tank the fall!_

Desperately she reached out with her Semblance. While it was true that Semblances were fueled by aura, it was still possible to use it when one didn't have aura if the huntsman in question had practiced with it enough and their will was strong. And she had definitely practiced quite a bit with her Semblance over the years, the precise control that she displayed when shifting her opponent's position ever so slightly was an example of that. Also, there was never quite a strong will like the will to not die.

She reached out with her Semblance to all the metallic objects within the vicinity and felt them hum slightly to her on a metaphysical level. She reached out to the closest one and it responded.

The armor that she always wore tried to pull her up slightly to break her fall but not so much that the sudden resistance would break her spine. She looked down and saw the ground approaching her at alarming speeds and urged her armor to resist the effects of gravity even more.

It felt like she was bench pressing a house after running a couple of marathons while she was simultaneously swimming. It was exhausting and took every ounce of her self control to not break her control over her Semblance. So this was trying to control a Semblance without any aura; it was so, so exhausting.

Realizing that simply using her Semblance on her armor wasn't going to prevent her death, she desperately latched out to any other metal surrounding her. In doing so her concentration slipped and caused her to fall even faster with the resistance against gravity the armour was putting up falling away like a small fort under siege. Gradually but it fell anyways.

There were half-melted gears surrounding her along with her faithful shield which was far farther up. Almost instinctively Pyrrha called her shield back to her, Akoúo̱ responding to its master's call by expertly swooping between the large shards of rocks and the half melted gears. Pyrrha caught it with her non-injured arm, wincing in pain at the thrum it sent up to her injured arm.

Suddenly the thrums of beautiful music reached her ears. Who the hell would be playing music here? Maybe that Flynt guy from the tournament but there was no way he could reproduce such beauty in his music, beautiful enough to steal her breath away and nearly distract her from the fact that the ground was less than seventy meters away.

Suddenly she realized that her ears weren't hearing any music at all. It was similar but completely different to the hum that she could feel from the metal surrounding her when she activated her Semblance. But what type of metal could make such a beautiful sound, a sound that no human would ever be able to reproduce?

Whatever. It didn't matter currently. What did matter was the plan that shot through her mind. It definitely wasn't going to work though, it was insane!

"Well," She whispered softly. "It's a good thing that it's insane. Otherwise, this probably won't work." An insane solution for an insane situation with insane circumstances.

With but a thought, Pyrrha shifted her direction and was pulled towards whatever metal was singing. She pulled herself far harder than what she needed though, apparently dragging herself to the singing metal was far easier than what was needed to pull herself to other metals. Usually she would have to make sure that the metal she was trying to fly to wouldn't fly to her, but there wasn't any reaction from the singing metal. While she flew though, she reversed herself to face the sky and threw Akoúo̱ upwards and watched as it soared past a couple of gears. Thanks to the twirl she put on her shield though, it reversed its direction and fell to the gears. She let go of her hold on the singing metal to try and reduce her speed, and while it decreased a bit it didn't by all that much.

She grimaced. 'This is going to be far closer than I hoped it would be,' She thought as she latched onto Akoúo̱ once more with her Semblance and increased the speed that it fell. With a gesture of her hand, Akoúo̱ twisted its position so that it would fall flat on its face and _rammed_ into the center of one of the gears, simultaneously increasing the fall speed of the gear and reducing the speed of Akoúo̱ itself. She once again latched onto the shield with her Semblance and dragged it towards her. She was panting and sweating immensely now and knew she wouldn't be able to use her Semblance much more on her shield and _definitely_ not on the bigger metallic objects.

She once again ignored the extreme amounts of pain emanating from her wounded arm and caught the shield with her non-injured arm. With the gear's speed increasing and falling towards her, she shifted her body in the air into a ball before placing her shield under her non-injured leg and jumping off of it. As Akoúo̱ fell towards the ground- ten meters only now!- she grabbed the gear with her right arm and tried pulling herself on top of it, succeeding once she used her right knee as extra support. She rolled on top of the gear and clamped her hands onto the grooves of the gear to hold onto the object. Knowing that if she landed like this she would only be crushed from debris above her, she once again shifted her Semblance onto the singing metal and _pulled_. Just like what she hoped for, the singing metal somehow withstood her entire Semblance similar to last time and instead dragged _her_ along for the ride with the gear beneath her, pulling her away from the debris that was to crush her.

Two meters! Pyrrha held on with all her might and used her Semblance for the final time to drag Akoúo̱ back beneath the gear in hope for the tiniest bit of extra defense between her and the ground that just might save her life. The moment where Akoúo̱ and the gear met the ground there was a horrific screeching sound of metal on metal and she was flung off the gear into the air, despite her clamping her hands on the grooves of it. Both her leg and shoulder screamed, no, her entire body wailed in pain at the rough treatment which only got worse when she hit the ground.

She screamed in pain as she was driven into the ground. Every part of her body felt like it was on fire. Her everything burned.

Once she stopped wailing though, she started laughing. Pain was good. Pain was great! It meant that she was alive. Broken, yes, but alive! She started howling in laughter, even though that only made her body rack in more convulsing racks of pain, which only lead to her laughing even harder. She couldn't believe she actually got out of that alive!

She slightly opened her eyes to see that the debris that was going to crush her was littered with arrows. So Cinder had tried to kill her even from the tower and couldn't make it through the debris that Pyrrha thought was going to kill her. Why couldn't she just make her arrows phase through the debris like how they phased through her shield?

Most Semblances come with limitations. Did Cinder need to have eye contact with the person she's attacking with the arrow when it phases? Maybe she needs to know the density or the volume of the thing that her weapons were phasing through. Though how would she know the volume of her shield? Then again, she did say that she was from Mistral, no matter how dubious that information is, and to get into Beacon she would no doubt need some actual papers, signed by a high ranking official in Mistral's academy: Haven. If Cinder had such a high contact, she could easily have gotten info on her shield.

Then again, Jaune was able to get into Beacon using forged papers…

No matter though. That wasn't necessary to know right now. Right now she needed to get away from Cinder or else she would be kille-?!

A faint and low growl was heard near her. A lone Beowulf emerged from the bushes. It wasn't even an Alpha, just a normal Beowulf. Normally Pyrrha could easily go through dozens of them.

Normally she wasn't hit by arrows in multiple places, disarmed, out of aura, unable to move efficiently, and with no Semblance any more at her disposal.

She smiled bitterly. So this is how she would die? After fighting Cinder, fighting a woman with the powers of a Maiden, escaping from a dragon, going through the most dangerous experience in her life with that fall, she was going to get killed by the weakest of all Grimm?

That's bullshit.

Tears stung her eyes.

That's bullshit! What the hell was she doing this for then?! She just escaped from a Grimm _Dragon_ and she was going to die to a god damn _Beowulf?!_

Tears dropped down her face, Pyrrha unable to stop them. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fucking fair!

Pyrrha let out a roar, an inhumane, primal _roar_ of defiance at the Beowulf. She wasn't going to die here! It seemed her body agreed with her from the absolute _rush_ of adrenaline flowing through her veins.

The Beowulf looked stunned for a moment before growling loudly and lunging at her.

Whatever it expected from the prey in front of it, the Beowulf sure didn't expect Pyrrha to lunge at the Beowulf herself. With her injured arm she battered away its paw even as its claws drew blood from her left arm as her right arm jumped out and caught the Beowulf by the throat, causing it to bite its tongue and snarl at her with those fangs less than two inches away from her face. She forced it into the ground while it's paws raked at her belly, causing scratches to litter her body though thankfully the claws weren't quite long enough to claw out her inner organs and deal a lethal blow. It must be quite young if its claws weren't even long enough for that.

The knowledge just infuriated her even more as she moved her shoulder closer to her mouth and ripped the arrow right out of the wounded area. Blood spewed out and dyed the grass in it's hues but she didn't care as the adrenaline rush she was experiencing dulled the pain. She shifted the arrow between her teeth with her tongue and drove the sharp end into the Beowulf's snout. It let out a painful cry and redoubled its efforts to kill her with its paws and immense strength. Thankfully, due to the position she held the Beowulf in, it couldn't use that immense strength to its full power and just settled for drawing a somewhat large amount of blood from her thighs and arms.

She ripped out the arrow once again and let the blood from the Beowulf blind its owner as the fluids dripped down into its eyes. The fangs gnashed and kept trying to go for her throat but she wouldn't let it. It's tongue flickered out and Pyrrha saw its weakness. With primal force, she pierced the tongue with the arrow and caused the Beowulf to choke. Dragging her left arm across the body, Pyrrha grabbed the end of the arrow and twisted it deeper into the Beowulf, causing the young Grimm to choke even more. It was about to try and snap the arrow with it's fangs but couldn't when Pyrrha used her hand to viciously backhand the Beowulf. The Grimm couldn't even let out a sound as Pyrrha constantly punched it. Even when her fingers cracked and her bones would groan, she kept punching it. The Beowulf choked for a few more seconds before giving a tiny sigh and melting and evaporating into black dots.

She continued to punch the ground a couple times before she was sure that the Beowulf was completely dead. It was dead. She let out a broken laugh and let her tears finally fall faster. That was terrifying, so _so so_ terrifying. But she was safe now, she was _safe_ now.

Suddenly her instincts flared up and she tossed herself to the right. This allowed the second nearby Beowulf to miss its lethal attack, only scoring a rather deep scratch on her already heavily damaged left arm. She gasped in pain when the pain in her body magnified exponentially, the previous adrenaline rush starting to fade away.

How? How was there another Beowulf? While she did have some negative emotions before, right now her only emotion was relief that she had survived. How did the Beowulf find her?

Running the fight against the first Beowulf through her mind, she paled once she came to a realization. That cry that the first Beowulf let loose when she stabbed its snout. It wasn't just a cry of pain but also a cry for help! A cry that this Beowulf apparently heard.

The Beowulf jumped on top of her and snarled at her. She gazed at those hideous red eyes and realized that what was reflected back was not Pyrrha Nikos but a corpse. She could only see death reflected in those eyes.

The Beowulf raised its paw, ready for the killing blow. Pyrrha shouted in its face even while tears leaked from her eyes. She went through so much only to die here? Of course she would. It was the world's irony at work once again.

Throughout her entire youth she was never able to gain a single friend or have a family member who didn't want to use her in someway. She always had to fight against the crowd, the overwhelming crowd all by herself. She always stood up for herself and always won by herself. Even when against superior numbers she always had won, even against the strongest.

Now the weak monster in front of her was about to kill her. All because another one of them had cried for help. Even these monsters were able to have friends and family members that would help them and be furious in their place while she didn't have any of that. No family members that gave a damn about her past her fighting ability. No friends that could ever want to be with her just because she was Pyrrha and not Pyrrha Nikos. All she could attract was cold and unfeeling metal, and even that failed her in the end.

The Beowulf's paw rushed at her, ready to deal the final blow.

No comrades existed for Pyrrha Nikos. She lived her life completely isolated and alone. Now she was going to die, completely isolated and alone. That more than anything broke Pyrrha, making her let loose loud sobs right before the paw came to crush her head like a grape.

And it patted her gently? No, it wasn't quite gentle but it was a far cry from the devastating impact that was expected, that should have killed her.

Pyrrha slowly opened her eyes. All she could see was red. For a second she hysterically thought it was her own blood before she realized what it actually was.

A rose. A scarlet cape and beautiful roses that laid around her, scattered around like the wind had whisked them here for her. The Beowulf's paw was nowhere to be seen. All that was there was the back of a shaking and absolutely furious girl that held a scythe within her hands. It gleamed like the scythe of a Grim Reaper but rather than inject Pyrrha with the coldness of fear it only brought a sense of safety.

Crescent Rose was held within soft hands, hands that Pyrrha knew could do great harm but could never quite believe it as the owner was just a small girl that was socially awkward and lovable. Like a fairy, the girl brought happiness with her constantly joyful expression everywhere she went.

There was none of that now. This wasn't the back of the little fifteen year old girl named Ruby Rose, who lit up everybody's world with her childlike innocence and way to add positivity to all events.

This was the back of a titan who should only belong in the legends of old. This was the back that brought hope to all who sees it. The back of the Huntress Ruby Rose.

With a single deft swipe, Ruby severed the body of the Beowulf in front of her with nearly casual ease. The bisected top half of the body flew off due to the power in the strike before dissipating into black sparks in the middle of the air, the lower body following the top half into obliteration.

Ruby turned to face Pyrrha and her face split into a warm grin for her, filled with delight at the sight of her friend alive. "Pyrrha! Thank God I found you, I was so worried! We all were!"

Pyrrha's eyes watered once again. She was worried! Ruby was worried for her! She flung herself onto the fifteen year old and started sobbing in relief while the young Huntress's composure cracked into a panicking fifteen year old, not quite sure what to do with a crying… anything really.

How could she be so stupid? No comrades? She had many now. All of Team JNPR and Team RWBY were her friends, no, her family now. In comparison to her previous zero, these seven were enough to keep her going, to keep having a good reason to live and come back home. They all cared about her and loved her, just like she did them, which put them multiple levels above her own family. She wasn't Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl, to them but just Pyrrha. She felt so relieved and happy when she realized that even though she knew that she should have realized that eons ago. Had Beacon really been only a year? That couldn't be possible. She had lived for seventeen years, and the year at Beacon felt like so much… more. More gentle. More kind. More fun. Just… more.

Ruby gently laid her hands on Pyrrha's back and whispered to her. "It's okay Pyrrha. You're safe now." Ruby softly draped her cape onto Pyrrha and finally observed the wounds that littered the invincible girl's frame. There were hundreds of scratches that could be seen, a heavily bleeding shoulder which looked like it had a sharp object literally yanked out in the most dangerous way possible, purple bruises that was starting blossom on Pyrrha's fair skin, a leg that looked like it had been shot, and numerous other injuries.

Ruby gently lifted up Pyrrha, wincing at the small shriek of pain the girl let loose. It must be even worse than it looked, somehow, if Pyrrha allowed any show of weakness at all.

"Don't worry Pyrrha." She whispered softly to the girl in her arms. "You'll be all healed up soon. I promise. Just… sleep for now. It'll all be okay."

As if she was waiting for those words, Pyrrha slumped down and lolled her head onto Ruby's shoulder. She fell asleep nearly immediately, her body shutting down to keep whatever stamina it still had after the multiple trying endeavors of simply trying to survive.

Pyrrha's last words before she passed out and went into blissful sleep was "Watch out...Cinder...maiden...dangerous...Ozpin...killed."

Ruby looked down in empathy at the tired girl and, for the first time in her life, she felt a spark of hatred, hatred towards the one who hurt Pyrrha.

Cinder. That's what her name is, or at least Ruby thought that was what Pyrrha was trying to say. It was the same name as one of the students that came to Beacon from Mistral, along with the student having the same voice as the one that rang out from the large screen that lorded over the stadium which held the Vytal Tournament. Ruby wanted to hunt the woman down and make her pay for hurting Pyrrha but she wasn't stupid. Pyrrha was insanely strong and if Cinder could actually beat her along with…

Ruby snapped out of her rage and flinched back in shock when she finally processed Pyrrha's words and stared down at the sleeping girl. Cinder killed Headmaster _Ozpin?!_ What?! How was that possible?!

If Cinder was powerful enough to beat not only Pyrrha but also the Headmaster of all people, who was one of the most powerful Huntsmen in not only Vale, but the entirety of Remnant… there was no chance that Ruby could beat her.

Silver eyes flickered as uncertainty waged a war within Ruby. If Cinder had to defeat both Pyrrha _and_ the Headmaster, there was no way she wasn't at the very least exhausted. But that wasn't a certainty either. She could have sneak attacked the Headmaster somehow and crippled him before killing him.

There were too many unknown variables. She couldn't truly form a good plan that would make everyone leave alive, hundreds of uncertainties were there and that annoyed her.

While she wouldn't have a problem going to face Cinder herself, that would leave Pyrrha behind and most likely die. Ruby grit her teeth and gently lifted Pyrrha before activating her Semblance.

Pyrrha once stated that her Semblance was, in fact, just 'speed'. This was incorrect, though it was an easily forgiven mistake seeing as that was she mainly used it for in Beacon. Her actual Semblance was 'turning into rose petals' which she usually uses to increase her speed; mostly used to circle around the opponents, disorient them, and use vicious attacks with her scythe which only dealt more damage with the increase in acceleration. Everyone in her family knew this part of her Semblance.

However that wasn't the only trick to her Semblance. Another simple but useful trick is that not only her, but whatever she held also turned into rose petals along with her. Her aura coats the objects she was holding with itself and transforms it into rose petals along with her. Nobody but Uncle Qrow and herself knew that, not even Yang or their father Tai. Uncle Qrow knew it when he noticed that whatever she held turned into rose petals along with her when she was playing tag with him one day and was trying to hit him with a stick.

Pyrrha dissolved into rose petals along with Ruby herself as she sped to blinding speeds and basically flew across the land. Before anything, she had to get Pyrrha to safet-?!

 _Hate rage envy revenge murder irrationality torture sins Evil World_ **A** _ **n** G **RA** _**M _aINYU_**

Ruby stumbled as her Semblance failed her for a second while the vile, alien thoughts slammed into her head. She crashed into the rocky ground while thousands of rose petals were tossed up into the air. Most of them clumped together and reformed into Pyrrha while a few just remained and floated.

Pyrrha, still unconscious, neared the ground before Ruby got up and lunged to catch her. She barely made it in time, her body scraping against the rocks and would have been badly scratched up if not for her aura protecting her from all damage.

"I got you Pyrrha." Ruby panted before worriedly glancing all around her. "What was that?" Thoughts she knew for a fact that not originated from her had appeared in her head and caused her Semblance to somehow fail which shouldn't be possible.

She had a bad feeling about this.

A crimson midnight lightning bolt that decided to abandon normality suddenly arced up from the ground towards the sky which _somehow_ suddenly formed a massive storm. The Grimm Dragon opening its jaws and letting loose a roar which could be heard all over Vale. The jet of white hot plasma in addition to the overall feeling of death and fear she was feeling only confirmed her feeling.

"Oh come on! That's just not fair!"

* * *

Ten minutes previously:

The portal ripped apart reality and deposited the Being of Steel and the Contaminated Artifact into the new world of Remnant.

Shirou blinked groggily before trying to stand up. Oh dear Root, Zelretch, and everything in between that was not fun.

The world swerved and tilted by about ninety degrees and Shirou puked on the ground. Or, he was at least trying to but since there was nothing in his stomach by now he just constantly made retching noises.

He recognized that magic. It was the same feeling that he got from one of the swords in his- Archer's- _his_ Reality Marble. That magic he was exposed to… he felt a similar aura, not quite as dark or corrupted but similar anyways, from the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch.

Zelretch's Second True Magic was based on the Operation of Parallel Worlds which, obviously, dealt with parallel worlds, space, and portals, though it also delved quite a bit with the Fifth True Magic which was dealing with the powers of time. Considering he was pretty sure he just had flown straight into a portal that would mean-?!

Shirou's eyes bugged out as his mind jumped between the series of information given, reviewed it a couple of times, and finally looked at the image the connect dots had portrayed. He was in another world. It was the only realistic observation and conclusion.

Heh. Hehehehe. Realistic. What a joke. As if the word could even belong here. Just using the word 'realistic' anywhere these past couple of weeks was a bad joke. Using it after being exposed to a True Magic? That would be enough to set the entirety of the Clock Tower laughing like mad hyenas. Hell, it would probably be bad enough to even make the Queen of the Clocktower Lorelei Barthomeloi do a quick eye roll in _public._

His breath quickened and he started hyperventilating.

No. He couldn't afford to start losing it here now. Take a deep breath. Hold. Let out. Deep breath. Hold for an extra two seconds. Let it out. Compartmentalize all emotions, they were unneeded and not useful at the current moment.

First assess the situation. The Second True Magic didn't just delve into portals to other planets but also to other specific places on the same world. He could just as easily be on his world but just at a different location.

Shirou looked upwards. The moon was shattered, its crystal shards glittering like divine gems that looked over all beings living under the night sky. Usually it would be beautiful to any onlooker, but right now Shirou just felt like that even the heavens were mocking him.

He didn't normally curse but, and usually not in English either at that but since that had more curse words than Japanese and he was panicking... "Fuck!" He was definitely not on the same world.

Deep breath. Hold. Let go. Deep breath. Hold for an extra two seconds. Let it all out. Compartmentalize.

All right. All right, he was on a different world. He was okay with this. He was okay with this. He was okay- _he wasn't okay with this._

No. No, focus. Focus on the important things. First of all, what happened to the Grail? More importantly, what happened to Excalibur?

His golden, sunset eyes searched the place he stood, only noticing now that the entire place was absolutely covered in debris. In the cold and dark night, the slight glow of Excalibur was easy to locate and he staggered over to the majestic blade.

Excalibur's glow only increased once Shirou grazed it with his hand and Shirou picked it up with his uninjured right hand instead of his completely metallized left hand.

He quirked an eyebrow at this. Wasn't he, like, a walking corpse not even a couple minutes ago? What happened and why wasn't he turning into steel completely due to Archer's arm overloading Avalon? It wasn't that Archer's arm just all of a sudden stopped working, he could feel his legs already turning into steel slightly and he could tell that he was dying from the inside out, along with his back left knee, one of the places that was actually not completely steel before, which was completely enveloped by Unlimited Blade Works.

It didn't make sense. Things not yet transformed into steel while what was steel was now not?

The only event that happened between him being nearly steel and now this is… the portal.

Son of a bitch! It always came back to the Root damned portal!

Alright, time to run through the very basic knowledge of Kaleidoscope that he knew. Or better yet…

He brought the Jeweled Blade of Zelretch to the front of his mind. Even though he couldn't call it out into the world without Illya assisting him, he could still at least scan the blade's history within his Reality Marble.

Most of the history of the blade was gibberish for no one could truly understand the Kaleidoscope except Zelretch himself. However Shirou was able to gleam just the tiniest bits of information from the blade that he could understand.

Portals, echoes, refractions, eradication, removal of space, warping, rifts, Spacetime twisting, something about a Presence of some kind, hundreds of abilities ran through the mind of Shirou. The Second True Magic was truly a diverse subject and was filled with hundreds of abilities and uses with only a few he was able to understand. However Shirou didn't care about that, he only cared about one of those abilities. He narrowed down his search to portals and saw the information about it which he could make sense of.

Portals, used to open a metaphysical doorway to other worlds, dangers of using it improperly, and something about a… Dimensional Gap and a large red Dragon along with a loli named Ophis? No, not needed. Even if it was needed he was in _no way_ touching that mess.

Used to make spaces between space time and force through to usually blocked off worlds, using this improperly will result in a backlash against all within the portal through the action of multiple consequences such as death, bisection, time blowbacks, and many more along with… ah.

Shirou groaned. Of course, that was why. In hindsight he was actually really lucky with managing to avoid the worst of the blowbacks for once in his life. This one, while painful, wouldn't inconvenience him all that much and what would inconvenience him he was lucky enough to have it reduced. The other one though...

Portals were complex pieces of an already extremely complex Magic. Portals were used to slip through and blend with the dimensional energies of the interconnecting multiverse to 'step' from one world to the next.

However forcing a portal to open even when it was done incorrectly? That was far more dangerous if quite a bit more simple. Forcing open a portal directly causes an imbalance in the time space continuum, and while this is corrected nearly immediately it does cause multiple blowbacks onto all those within the portal. One of them being…

'Artificial molding and restructuring of time space within a specific quadrant of a physical and/or spiritual contained spectrum along with experiencing temporal pulsing and echoes before reverting to original temporal slate, all the while being separated from the key determined consciousness of the specified World depending on direction of temporal shifting for an unspecified period of time.' Shirou thought to himself while grimacing quite a bit.

Shit. Shit shit shit. That wasn't good at all. Not in the least.

In layman's terms that would basically be saying "Hey, I'm just going to grab this specific part of your body and just make it go forward in time while grabbing this part and reversing time on it. After this, you're probably going to feel literal soul shattering pain like nothing you've ever felt before at random points of time. After that, when you'll wish you were dead, I'll make sure you aren't so you can go through that torture all over again. You good with that? No? Well too bad."

The body part time warping would be like having the arm of a five year old while simultaneously having the hand of a ninety year old man. He wouldn't be able to use it all since none of his bones were able to support it all the while having arthritis with the pain nerves of a five year old. Torturous pain would be a laughable understatement. He was lucky enough to avoid that by his body only going through a shift in time by about ten minutes, whether it was forward or backwards. Thankfully it was mostly backwards which allowed at least some of the metal to reverse while the body parts that were sent forward in time wasn't even steel anymore but it would be more apt to describe it as being completely made of blades, his left arm being an excellent example seeing as how it had been enveloped by blades. However the other backlash of the portal he was able to see within his body was far worse.

Experiencing temporal pulsing and echoes? That's horrifying. It was the same type of reactions his father Kiritsugu would go through when activating his family's magic crest except only magnified exponentially. The pain would easily surpass the previously stated consequence along with hindering him quite a bit. In fact one of the temporal pulse was… starting… now-

"Hahrrrgggghhh!" Shirou yelled out in pain in spite of clamping his teeth down hard enough on his lip to draw a good amount of blood.

He could feel his heartbeat speeding up. It started hammering against his chest, the compulsion of time forcing it to accelerate its speed to lethal levels. 97 Beats per Minute. 112 BPM. 226 BPM. 347 BPM. Shirou's heart kept on increasing the speed of itself under compulsion from one of the laws of the universe, time itself. The pain kept slowly increasing until his heart burned with the fury of a thousand suns.

Soon enough the heart couldn't keep up with its own pace and exploded inside of his own chest. For a minute he was thankful that it did, and then realized something. His heart had just exploded. How was he still alive? And why did the unending pain _not stop?!_

Time was why, he belatedly realized. While Time did speed up his heart beat, it also simultaneously slowed down the reactions of his nervous system. That was why the pain only slowly increased until it got to an amount of agony he couldn't outright ignore with his frankly massive amount of pain resistance.

It was also why he wasn't straight up dead yet. His nervous system hadn't sended his brain signals that he was dead. But then why was the pain still increasing? Are the pain nerves not under the same influence of Time as the rest of his nerves somehow?

Argh, he wasn't a doctor he didn't know stuff about the body! And even if he was filled to the brim with medical knowledge he couldn't do anything actually with it since he was the one actually having the… whatever this was!

He couldn't breathe. Everything, every part of his body was on fire. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't stop the pain, he couldn't do anything!

Blood vessels imploded within his body due to the high pressure of the blood circulating throughout his body, the blood vessels unable to support the high blood speed. Fractures developed throughout his entire skeletal system, his brain's soft flesh ripped apart as his own blood assaulted it. And he could somehow feel everything that was happening. He tried to let out a scream but couldn't as his lungs filled up with his own crimson life fluid.

And finally, mercifully, _thankfully_ Shirou Emiya finally died.

Then Time itself reversed. Causality was erased and so events that had happened never have and never will. Shirou's body, which had fallen over, was slowly pulled back loosely like he was a puppet dancing to the tune of a novice marionette. His heart started slowly being pulled back together, all the vital parts of it being dragged back like a ball on a string and being haphazardly stitched together until it reverted back to normal.

Shirou gasped for breath as he stumbled and slumped onto a rock for support, dry heaving onto the ground, only able to do that action with Time reverting him back to his 'original temporal slate' which was basically how his body was before that torture. That was… that was hell.

No. No, that was a joke. Hell? Comparing that slight pain to the events of the fire ten years ago which had forged him into the blade he was today? By the Root, Shirou felt like he should actually apologize to Angra Mainyu for that idiotic comparison.

Before that though, he had a mission. He had to finish this quick, before he went through that again. The pain might be nothing special to him but it was still pretty distracting.

That reminded him of something far more important. Where was the Grail? He should be able to feel the corruption that was emanating from the eldritch horror but he didn't feel anything.

He started panicking. Oh God, did the portal take the Grail someplace else? Some other world or, god forbid, the portal kept the Grail on his own world? Within Fuyuki?

No, no that wasn't possible. His left arm had attached a blade and dug into the Grail which brought him to this world in the first place. He remembered the impact the Grail had when it collided with the building he was standing among the remains of. Had it left him and somehow transported back to his homeworld? No, it shouldn't have the Prana left to do that. Forcing the portal open should have taken nearly all of the prana the Grail gathered from the Fifth Holy Grail War. The Fourth Holy Grail War had all of the collected Prana used to jumpstart the Fifth Holy Grail into starting fifty years before it should have.

'But,' said an incessant nagging voice in the back of his head that he termed Archer, 'what happened to the Prana collected during the First, Second, and Third Holy Grail War?'

The night seemed far colder all of a sudden.

'The Prana was dissipated… right?' Thought Shirou worryingly. The truth of the matter was that he didn't have as much information on the Grail he should have had. Rin helped there but even she didn't know everything about the Grail and he never asked Illya, which seems like a huge oversight now on his part. Well, to be specific, though she talked about the Grail quite a bit, he didn't think he asked her about the Prana collected from the previous wars. Or if he did, he couldn't completely remember since some of his memories were still gone.

Wait, he was getting ahead of himself. First all, see if the Grail wasn't there and if it wasn't, then start panicking.

He clutched Excalibur in his right hand tightly in anxiety while Excalibur in return glowed warmly to respond to him, as if trying to ensure him that everything would be okay. It relaxed him a bit and made him smile warmly towards the blade. After whispering a quick "Thank you Saber," Shirou limped into the opening between all the shattered debris that he suddenly realized was from the tower they crashed into. It was a miracle that even through the debris they were able to land a bit of distance away.

Well a miracle or basic physics really, seeing as the Grail and he flew out the portal they were close to… well he didn't know but he knew it was really really fast.

He clambered into the opening and scouted out the outside. There was smoke and fires and crushed pieced of rock that were blocking his vision but by slightly reinforcing his eyesight he was able to gaze past the obstructions.

There! Only a couple dozen meters away, the corrupted Grail laid on its side in a large trench and was vulnerable. Shirou scrunched his eyebrows together. Was it just him or did the Grail look smaller now? And… was something on the surface of the Grail? He saw some movement that looked like it was writhing in pain on the Grail. The sphere of darkness that was over the size of Berserker exponentially reduced in size, looking like the size of a standard bowling ball and it also looked like it was… splitting?

All of a sudden the Grail split apart violently, almost as if the hand of God had wrenched the two components apart in a disgusted manner.

A sense of terror swept the area. Sweat started pouring down Shirou's face which had twisted into an aghast expression. A slight ripple appeared over the Grail like a small pebble dropped into the center of a calm lake. The rippling reversed so instead of spreading outwards and seemed to absorb the lines back into itself by gathering inwards and upwards, forming something. Corruption infected the now small bubble and turned it into a blackish crimson orb rather than the semi-transparent bubble it was before. A small fracture shined its way into existence on the orb before spreading quickly over the surface. It broke in two and dropped the contents back into the Grail, the liquid seemingly merging with the Grail.

Then it released a black and a _crimson lightning bolt_ that ascended to the heavens and cut through the sky, lighting up the town in a malevolent glow and forming thunder clouds which started to storm. Thunderstorms were common enough but this was no simple thing. Within a second or two the clouds began to stretch all across Beacon and started quickly covering the distance between the place he was in and the city beyond it, spreading across kilometers in an instant and revealing to the world a primordial force of nature that couldn't be driven off, that couldn't halted, that couldn't be _stopped._

However what goes up must come down eventually. Dozens of the same crimson black lightning bolts came streaking down from the heavens, hitting and igniting the ground and towers with the unstable electric charges, coating anything and everything with malice from All The World's Evils. All who even _remotely_ had a sense of self-preservation had their instincts light up in fury, screaming for everyone to flee and hide. Even those who had fallen unconscious had woken up screaming while Grimm were whipped into a frenzy never seen before on Remnant.

* * *

Blood. Blood was everywhere. It was hot and sticky and dropped innocently from her even though it belies a far more malevolent truth.

She was gasping. Was she hyperventilating? She didn't know, all she knew was that her chest was on fire. She grabbed her chest, trying to slow down the pain on her left side. Or at least she tried to. She tried wave her hand but it didn't respond to her commands. She tried to glare at it but only to falter in shock when she saw it. Not her hand. Just a stump, hanging limp from her right side. Sweat poured down her face.

"Hah, hah, ugh." She felt nauseous. Was her arm gone? No that wasn't possible. It couldn't have happened. She dropped to her knees, getting mud on her shirt and pants.

"Well well well. Look at the filthy human we have here, scrounging in the dirt like a pestilence spreading rat. Ironic, after your species judged us to be the rats hidden beneath the trash, simple animals that could be abused at a simple whim. Animals whose whimpers couldn't melt the frozen and unfeeling hearts of those who called themselves humans." A voice piped up behind which made her freeze up in horror and fear. No, no it couldn't be him. Not again, not after what had happened. Not after that tor-

"No more." The voice hardened after its previous amusement, cutting off her thoughts. "You might have been able to get away with kicking some little animals around who couldn't or wouldn't stand up for themselves but you bared your teeth with arrogance against a bull, so confident that just because you bruised, beaten, and battered a couple of animals before that even the mightiest wouldn't dare to raise their weapons against you." He slowly drew out his sword, that cursed and damned and _tainted_ sword, and flicked the edge against her cheek, drawing just the slightest of traces of blood while she sat frozen. Her eyes slowly traced the edge of the blade that rested so close against her that with a minimal amount of movement it could cause her pulse to forever still.

"I will erase the filthy and hypocritical existence known as humanity away from this beautiful planet. No matter how long it will take, no matter how many of you try to survive and escape like the cockroaches you are, I will find you. I will hunt you down, drag you outside of your hiding place kicking and screaming, and force you to watch as your loved ones go up in the flames of my hatred, _our_ hatred, before suffering the same fate yourselves. For the faunus, _Justice_ will be served." The voice seemed to echo all around her making her scream as it just wouldn't _stop._

"Never again will we be forced to cower and hide. Never again will we be subjected to prejudice, torture, and never again will we be killed at the simple whims of someone stronger. No, this time we will rule as what we truly are: the stronger ones, the superior beings, the Kings of Remnant! And the humans will be exactly as they should be: extinct."

With a single deft stroke the blade carved its way through her other arm but even before she could scream, the blade retreated and, like a vicious viper, struck with celerity and stabbed through her chest.

She tried to scream but could only cough up blood. The burning world around her turned dim as she flopped over weakly. Her last sight was the vindictive face of a man whose eyes were covered by a mask, making him look like a Grimm.

She gasped and spluttered as she woke up from her nightmare, sweat pouring down her face like small waterfalls.

"Yang? Yang! How the hell-" A voice yelled out aloud. Blond hair filled her entire vision and she could see a tail that was waving around worriedly. "Are you okay? Don't answer that, retarded question I know. Here, drink some water." A cold and clear glass was raised up to her mouth, thankful for the sweet relief of the drink. She didn't know how much she needed the water until she had it.

She whimpered a bit when it ran out until Sun quickly refilled it and held it up to her mouth again. She quickly sucked it down and breathed in relief as her thirst was abated only to feel hot shame running through her when she realized she was being babied.

Sun either didn't notice or didn't care. "Blake was able to cart both of you guys out of the main part of Beacon and ran into another team called BRNZ. They're old acquaintances of mine from Vacuo, or at least May Zedong is. They brought you here before they ran back out to kill some of the Grimm. I was able to stop both of you guys from bleeding out using the supplies from the evacuation station and the escape point. Good thing we left then, right now the sky is swarming with Grimm and Beacon has…" Here Sun's voice radically decreased in volume, as if he himself couldn't believe what he was about to say. "Fallen. Beacon has fallen."

He seemed to try and shake off his previous anxiety before speaking again. "Granted, it's not exactly stellar here but we're surrounded by a couple of huntsmen and huntresses in training. We should be safe." He said in a somewhat clinical fashion, a far cry from the roguish and lackadaisical man he had shown in Beacon.

She was somewhat surprised. After all, Sun was known to be a pretty chill and a guy contented with having fun along with a not-so-secret crush on Blake. This was another facet of him entirely, one that she'd never seen before. Hell, she didn't even know he knew that much medical knowledge. Obviously he knew some since knowing first aid was a basic requirement in the prep schools like Signal, but to patch the large stab wound Blake had and help some other injured people that she saw around was far more than what was taught there.

But for _Beacon_ to have fallen to the Grimm, for one of the main four schools to train Huntsmen to have fallen...

No matter. That wasn't important right now, what was important was… "How's Blake? And where's Ruby and Weiss?"

"I already told you how Blake was." He said while he started to patch someone else who had a dislocated shoulder. "Bite down on this." He stated while forcing a small plate into someone's mouth. "Ready?" The huntsman in training in question grimly nodded. He couldn't be older than Ruby from his looks. "Alright. On three. One!" He shoved the dislocated shoulder back into the socket correctly while the Huntsman's eyes bugged out for a second and letting out a small whimper of pain.

Sun nodded approvingly. "Don't worry, I set it back properly. Your aura should help douse the pain along with protecting your teeth from the plate. Good thing too, we don't actually have all that much supplies. Just get some gauze tape and bandages along with some disinfectant and a couple other things. You were lucky. I had to stab someone in the chest with a pen covered with a good amount of ammonia earlier to help get rid of the bubbles in their lung, and let me tell you it was a complete _bitch_ to get through the guy's aura. Make sure you don't get hurt like that, got it?" After taking some sadistic reassurance in the guy's fearful nod he turned back to Yang.

"As I said, Blake's fine. She's resting in a bed with a good amount of gauze over her stab wound. Thank god it went out cleanly and you guys were brought here quickly. I wouldn't have had the materials to do a blood transfusion here if you guys bled out anymore." He gave a weak grin. "I admit, this isn't nearly the situation nor the circumstances behind everything I thought of when Blake would be basically naked and resting in a bed after a long night with me." Yang attempted to perform a weak laugh but it came out as a strangled cough and a hysterical choking noise.

It must have sounded even worse than she thought if the worried face Sun was making while he rushed over to her was any indication. He gently forced her back down into the bed. She didn't even realize that she had started to get up.

He frowned. "Hey don't get up. You should be resting. Don't worry, Neptune is one of the guys outside and he'll makes sure that no Grimm gets in here."

She weakly battered his arm aside. Or more of he allowed her to shove his arm off, with how weak she was. "Sun, where's Ruby and Weiss?" She asked quietly.

He winced before trying to lie to her. "They're around, at the front and helping the guard to be on the lookout."

Crimson eyes stared back at him. "Then why aren't they here? Both Ruby and Weiss would have stayed here and refused to move from this spot. Especially if there are people to help protect the injured. I know that and you know that."

Sun winced again. Shit, when had he become so bad at lying? He swore he was good at it when he was younger. "Ah…"

A sigh escaped Yang as bright crimson faded back to lilac. She couldn't really be mad at Sun, she knew better than anyone that Ruby would be busy trying to save people in the invasion. She was a hero.

 _"And she'll die, just like one. Just like mom."_ A voice whispered at the back of her mind. She scowled and tried to lift herself up from the bed again but Sun's hands pressed down on her and forced her to stay still.

"You can't move." He snarled at her, seeming a lot more like a lion than the monkey faunus he truly is. "I gave my word to your sister and Weiss that I'd make sure to take care of you guys. Listen, all of us evacuated from Beacon. The situation is far worse than you think it is. _Thousands_ have died in this attack and hundreds are still dying right now. I've done my best to patch up people but even in the safe zone we don't have that many medical supplies." He gestured around the hall that they both were in. "These beds that a couple of people are lying in along with you and Blake? I had to raid houses and shove corpses off of them just to get them." He choked back a sob. "There was this one kid. His entire body was torn up and a good eighty percent of his blood was on the walls. He couldn't have been more than ten Yang! I couldn't give him a proper burial or do anything for him! Worse even! I had to disrespect his dead body and shove it off the door it was blocking to steal these beds! All because this stupid, ridiculous, _fucking_ invasion is going on and I couldn't focus on respecting the dead since I had to look at the bigger picture and focus on the living! From that house, I stole a couple of beds and mattresses, I stole food, I ransacked the entire house while ignoring the blood that I was stepping on that came out from the boy's corpse, and and and-!" Sun buried his face in his hands and took in a strangled gasp.

Yang felt sickened. Did Sun really have to do that? No, it couldn't be true. There was no way reality could be so sickening. It had to be impossible, for everything to be this bad.

"I have to save my sister." Yang said automatically. "As long as she is alive it doesn't matter if I am." _I will never leave family behind. Not like that person did._

Sun looked up from his hands, eyes bloodshot and tear trails apparent. Some expression Yang couldn't exactly decipher warred across his face before he gave up with a relenting sigh. "When I was young at Vacuo, I grew up at an orphanage, though that would be a generous term since it was just a run down building less than a full story tall with a hole in the wall for a door along with no plumbing or running water. I couldn't remember my parents other than a couple of images like a yellow tail similar to mine." He started saying. "All of us at the orphanage were poor sons of bitches abandoned by our parents, or maybe some of us had our parents killed, we didn't know and didn't really care. We would be lucky if we could get a meal a day so we didn't even have time to.. So to live, we all banded together, unified in the face of common cause: survival.'

Yang quirked her eyebrow. Where was Sun going with this? Yang opened her mouth to say something but the monkey Faunus cut her off with a glare.

Sun continued to speak though. "The older kids knew their way around the gallows and the shady people and criminals. They taught us how to pickpocket people, the criminals to avoid, the places which would toss out their leftover food so we could go dumpster diving to get a decent meal, all the while being sneaky so the owners wouldn't grab a belt and start giving us a couple of lashes like they sometimes did if we got caught. One day, a friend of mine who went by Liq was shot in the shoulder by some random guy who caught him trying to steal some lien for the rest of us. I found him lying in the middle of the road, nearly half covered by Vacuo's sand."

"We took him to a back alley doctor who sometimes took pity on us and gave us food a couple times. The Doctor was able to fix him up pretty quick and warned us not to get hurt again and that Liq just needed rest since the bullet went clean through. That's when I got on my knees and prostrated myself before him and begged for him to teach me some of his medical know-how because I didn't want my friend to be hurt and for me feeling absolutely useless again. I still don't know what convinced him to agree and teach me to today, but all that mattered at the time was that he was going to teach me. And so I learned, day after day, week after week, month after month, until over four years passed. Illnesses, bullet wounds, dehydration symptoms, blood transfers, cures, unconventional ways of helping, and more. He was a mysterious bastard too, never even told me his name, though apparently he was really good with technology also since he once mentioned he came from Atlas and was a scientist there. Even had a logo that appeared whenever he logged onto the computer, the letter V." He continued to narrate his life story to Yang, not being able to stop himself once he got going.

"Soon though, the small town that we lived in underwent a Grimm attack because some fool started a fire in a drunk rage which burned a couple of the houses and everybody started panicking which drew the Grimm in hordes." Sun's fist clenched in rage. "Thankfully a couple of the people had training, but not enough to fully repel the Grimm and a couple were able to sneak into the town. The Doctor held some off and killed a few but one of the Grimm was a Scuttler, a Grimm able to burrow into Vacuo's sand and travel underground nearly as fast as Nevermore could fly, so it snuck past him while he was carving up the other monsters. It found us as we were panicking. It killed a couple of us and left severe injuries on a couple other before the Doctor came and killed it. I was somewhat injured but the Doctor unlocked my aura so I was stable.

"Even though I nearly died, I tried to heal everybody even when the Doctor said it was useless. But I was only one person and there were so many injured that even if I saved one of the guys, two or three others would have died by then."

His expression showed a twisted type of despair, the type of despair that could only appear when your brothers and sisters died and you could something to help but didn't, along with his bright blue eyes looking far more like dark pits. "Ten of us died that day. All because the Doctor and I weren't enough to help everybody, him helping me even though he told me it was useless, the old hypocrite."

"I remember hating myself to the bottom of my heart. I remembered thinking that if I was just better I could have saved the guys. But mostly… mostly I remembered that if there were more of me I could have saved everybody." Sun gazed at Yang's face with the expression of utmost seriousness. "That was how I unlocked my Semblance."

Yang's face color, which was a previous pale, descended rapidly into such a pure white that one would think that she was a Schnee. Semblance. Sun actually described how he got his Semblance. To _her_. That- That was insane! Describing the situation of how one got their Semblance was the greatest honor that the one listening could receive as it described a portion of themselves, baring their privacy and their most vulnerable point of their lives to the one listening since it only unlocked while the person was going under insane amounts of stress. If a Huntsman could either tell someone that they didn't know the circumstances over them gaining their Semblance or running around Atlas in the complete nude the policemen would be called in complaints of someone streaking all over the city. Then if the situation was explained the said policemen would _actually let them go,_ so sacrosanct the secret is.

"Do you see now Yang? I swore to Ruby and Weiss that I'll take care of both you and Blake. I couldn't protect my brothers and sisters on that day but I'll be damned if I let you guys go out there and kill yourselves out of a misplaced sense of justice!" Sun roared in her face while she flinched back. Apparently he saw the flinch as shame washed across his face and he backed off quickly. Even so he continued speaking, albeit much softer than previously. "I won't let my friends die again. Never again. Not when I have the power to save them."

Yang swallowed deeply and actually considered listening to Sun's advice. ' _Ah, so you would leave Ruby behind? Just like that woman left you behind?'_ The voice at the back of her head said while returning with a vengeance. ' _Understandable. After all, like mother like daughter. It was foolish to expect anything more out of you.'_

No. No, she would never be like that woman who left her family behind. She steeled herself before looking Sun dead in the eye and saying "I can't ever claim to understand what you went through Sun. I accept that but," she jerked her head towards the outside before continuing, "I never want to either. Right now, my sister is out there and fighting. I'll be damned if I allow her to get hurt if there's even the slightest of chances that I could help her. I don't care if I die as long as Ruby stays alive and unhurt." Yang saw Sun's eyes widen before looking at her in sympathy before steeling himself.

"All right Yang, I'll let you go out there but only on one condition. Raise your right hand." Yang quirked an eyebrow at him before trying to give a small grin and failing miserably. It was a weird condition but all right, why not. "Alright doc, you got it."

She tried to raise her right hand and failed. Badly. What? She couldn't tell before but she couldn't feel her right hand. There was literally nothing. No pain, no feeling. No way for her hand to signal to her brain that something was wrong. She tried to look at her right hand but only saw the grey mattress of the bed she laid on. Her gaze traveled upwards and her heart stopped when she saw what was there. Or, to be exact, what wasn't there. Her right arm was gone and all that was left was a stump wrapped in gauze.

That's not possible. How was her right hand not there, it shouldn't be possibl-?!

 _A scarlet flash, radiating bloodlust, struck her and carved through skin and bone to get the crimson fluid running through her body._

"-ang! Yang!" Her shoulders were shaking as she realized Sun was calling her name. She cut across his cry with a choked voice asking a simple yet terrible question. "How?"

Sun hesitated a bit before answering. "Your arm… it got cut off during a fight with the White Fang leader Adam… the same one who impaled Blake. I was able to stem the blood flow and numb the pain with a mixture of the numbing effect of the dogwood found outside combined with a pinch of lightning and ice dust that was given to me by a couple of huntsmen when I asked."

Her eyes teared up before she blinked it away. Her right arm loss was devastating but something far more important to her in danger right now. Her tone, dead and even as if trying to numb all her overwhelming emotions, was chilling. "I'm going to find Ruby."

Sun's head, which had turned away, whipped back to her in such speed and in a fashion that would have been hilarious in any other circumstance. "Yang you can't!" He cried out. "Your entire fighting style is based completely off your arm strength, stance and balance. All of that is screwed up with the loss of an arm. You won't have a good enough balance to deal precise and strong blows, which screws up your stance which you use for adding extra momentum to your attacks for more force!" He argued. "You're more likely to be die out there than the kids from Signal! Your entire fighting style is flushed down a drain and you don't even have that much aura left since most of it was destroyed during your fight or used up when trying to heal you! You have at most 15% of aura left, with it far more likely to be less!"

"Even so," She said stubbornly, "I can't leave Ruby out there."

"And besides," another voice piped up, "she won't be alone." Blake limped out of a pillar that she used to hid herself from them. She didn't dare look at Sun's betrayed eyes.

"You?!" Sun spat out. "Blake be reasonable here. You might not be as bad as Yang but the difference is next to none, like the difference between putting a five year old and a three year old out in front of an Ursa." Blake flinched back. He noticed this and drove on, using that as a weak point to underscore his argument, no matter how manipulative that might have been. "The only difference is that instead of Yang dying, it'd be the both of you. You don't even have any aura left after it was spent trying to heal you! One, maybe two, percent at max and you weren't exactly known for having a stellar amount anyways, a bit above average at best."

"All the same," amber eyes gazed directly into blue, "Team RWBY sticks together."

"Yeah I got that! And guess what! There is no more Team RWBY if you guys die out there!"

"We won't!"

"Yeah! Just like you won't get fatally injured by facing someone far above your level! Oh wait, my bad, that already happened when you charged against Adam-fucking-Taurus! By the way, can you please explain that _stunning_ amount of logic?!" Low blow, he knew, but it got the point across at least.

Blake winced before steeling herself and saying, "I'm going. Yang will follow anyways, the both of us know this." Team RWBY was her family, the reinforcements that she had when facing the White Fang, the haven that she had when her past seemed like it was about to catch up to her and consume her. She stared at Yang's stump of an arm and felt conflicted. For Team RWBY to have been attacked… it felt like a violation of her very soul. Her safe place had been invaded. Her eyes glowed in hate as her aura sparked around her.

At the same time though, Sun was right. Yang missing an arm would deal huge damage to her abilities in combat. Her sense of balance would be completely off, her aim for Ember Celica's shotgun wouldn't be enough to hit the broadside of a barn, her strikes would be far weaker than normal, and her aura is low.

However, if there is one thing that she believed in fully… it is that Team RWBY was the light of her life, the light of all the team members life. Especially Yang's. During the time at Beacon, Yang witnessed the sister that she had to raise grow up. Ruby emerged from her shell of social awkwardness and gained friends who would die for her.

How could she take the simple act of protecting what was most important to Yang away from her? She couldn't. Blake had always fought for equality for the faunus because it was the dream she believed in, the goal that was important to her. If she stopped Yang from going out there now to fight and try to protect her sister… she'd be lower than scum, a hypocrite of astronomical proportions. She placed all her emotions into her eyes and pleaded with Sun to just step aside.

Sun snarled before suddenly backing off and sighing. "Fine. Do what you want, while I do what I want."

Blake, not expecting the sudden acceptance of Sun, slowly nodded and gathered herself. She limped to Yang while Yang herself tried to push herself up with only her left arm before failing and falling back onto the mattress. She shook her head slowly before trying again and succeeding this time. She got up onto the couch while Blake stood by her and resting on one of the metallic posts that had little specks of crimson on it. Yang smiled at Blake before collapsing onto the bed unconscious with Sun behind her and pressing a needle into her leg, unloading its contents into her bloodstream.

"Sun!" Blake yelled out loud, fearful for a second at what Sun had done to her partner before slumping slightly in relief when Sun shook his head at her.

"It's just a highly effective form of anesthesia, one carefully combined with fire dust to increase the pace at which it flows through the bloodstream." He explained to her. "I only have a couple and I don't want to waste them so you're either going to bed, Blake, or I'm going to make you have a nice long nap. And trust me, this way is far more painful." At this point, Sun actually drew out and deployed his nunchucks Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang and leveraged it against the girl.

Amber eyes flickered between the blue eyes and the crimson nunchaku angrily before she said, "What happened to letting us do what we want?"

"I said that you can do what you want while I do what I want." Sun corrected. "This is what I want. Besides, the fact that the needle sunk that deep that fast means Yang's on an even lower amount of aura than I thought. She'd die far easier than even I expected."

Blake glared at him angrily before slumping slightly. "We wouldn't end up like them." She whispered softly.

Sun glared at her, at his crush, before whispering equally softly, "You don't know that. No one does. If they did they wouldn't go in the first place."

If Blake had slumped over before, her body was on the verge of collapsing now. "Yeah… I guess no one does." Their eyes met once again before Blake started begging him. "Please… save Ruby and Weiss. You were right, it was stupid to think that we could do it as hurt as we are. So please. Please save them. You can do it instead of us. Please."

The monkey faunus gazed at the bowing cat faunus before sighing. "Of course Blake. Ruby is my friend too, along with Weiss… no matter how strict she is." He said, grumbling out that last part even though both of them knew that she heard it with her extremely sharp hearing. She gracefully pretended that she didn't though and collapsed onto Yang's bed.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Sun." Blake managed to say even as she felt her eyelids drooping.

"Meh," He waved the thanks away and said, "no problem."

"Stay safe."

"Of course I will. Shouldn't you know about this by now? I'm Sun Wukong! Nothing can keep me down."

"Liar." Both of them knew it might be the last time they see one another. No, it was highly likely that they would never see another again.

Sun didn't respond to her though. He turned around and attached the two weapons together before mechashifting it into his staff. He turned around and started walking slowly to the edge of the large hall they were in, with them being already relatively close to the outside. He hesitated for a minute before nodding to himself as if in reassurement.

"Blake. I love you." He said out loud while turning to face her again. His resolute eyes stared into Blake's shocked ones. At the start it was all just a simple admiration of her beauty. Then a simple chase after someone who interested him, though mainly for some reason he couldn't truly decipher himself. Maybe it was just the mystery the girl was wrapped in or maybe some other reason, he didn't truly know. Then he truly started to learn more about her. The stubbornness and fierceness beneath that cold exterior. That calculating gaze of hers trying to figure everything out, her dry wit and sarcasm. The respect for the lives of all, no matter if they were faunus or human. That tendency to jump headfirst recklessly rather than with an actual plan, the passion that she had for anything that she truly believed in. That ability to naively believe that peace was possible between the two races. The ability that allowed her to believe that with the right amount of pushing, just the right amount of perseverance, she could truly surpass the boundless depths of hatred and bring the two races together even with all the hate and cruelty she had seen and heard of.

She had her faults, yes, but everybody did. While he hated a few of them, like her endless need for martyring herself and thinking that everything the White Fang did was her fault, others he had adored. He didn't know when Blake had ascended from a pretty girl to one he actually loved but he found that he had no qualms with such a thing. He truly wanted to help her go beyond that past that she chained herself down with and find acceptance. He knew that was a hypocritical thing to say, seeing as he wasn't completely over the tragedy of his own past, but he wanted to help her soar past her old self and to stop looking over her shoulder every minute, every second, just waiting for another tragedy to strike.

Heh, maybe that's why he had initially fallen for her. He saw himself in her.

"Stop holding onto the past Blake." He said firmly to the crimson faced girl. "You're just chaining yourself down. The White Fang isn't your fault. Take it from someone who held regrets for far longer than what is healthy. Take solace in the company you have today while not forgetting the joys of the past. Remember what the White Fang originally stood for. That's the best way to honor its memory, not simply martyring yourself to this twisted, corrupted ideal it has become now. Forgive yourself. I promise you, with such good friends at your side," here he nodded to Yang, "you won't ever find yourself alone. Remember that. Please."

"I-I will Sun." Blake stammered out. "I-I love you too!"

"Hah!" Sun couldn't help but let out a rueful laugh. "Now who's the liar?"

He pushed the door out of his way and closed it gently behind him, feeling Blake's forlorn gaze on him the entire time. Outside of the safe haven, multiple huntsmen, huntresses, huntresses in training, and huntsmen in training were there and were decimating any Grimm that stood near.

He called out to his blue haired friend. "Oi, Neptune!"

Neptune stabbed a Beowulf casually while turning around to greet his best friend and leader. "Hey Sun! Nice weather we're having, huh?"

Sun cracked a small grin. "Can't really tell, all the Nevermore and Griffons are blocking out the sun! Then again, I'm still here so…"

Neptune groaned at the terrible pun. "I wish you never met Team RWBY or JNPR. You picked up on all of their annoying habits."

"Except Weiss right?" Sun teased his friend while wiggling his eyebrows.

"Except Weiss. She doesn't have any." Neptune agreed. His friendly expression turned serious. "What do you need me for Sun? Anything bad happen?"

Sun's expression mirrored Neptunes. "Yeah you could say that. By the way, you know how you used to want to be a bullhead flyer?"

Neptune seemed surprised at the sudden change in topic and his expression turned suspicious, for good reason too. "Yeah, I thought it was super cool at first, why do you ask?

"No reason." Sun's voice was too casual and Neptune had a deepening sense of dread. "Do you remember how to hotwire and fly one?"

"...Why?"

"Do you or do you not?"

Neptune gave a deep sigh, knowing that this won't lead to anywhere good. "I know how to hotwire and fly a bullhead… theoretically. Like, I read it in a book and have no practical experience in actually flying one so whatever you're planning we really shouldn't do it."

Sun gave a deep contemplative stare at Neptune, giving him hope that Sun would actually reconsider what he was pretty sure was a suicidal and retarded plan. Then that hope was crushed, burned, and had its grave pissed on when Sun shrugged and said, "Meh. Good enough."

'I hate my life.' Neptune thought before giving a deep sigh and gave a lazy salute. "Got it leader. Now, where are we heading?" Sun turned his head and nodded to some place. Neptune followed his gaze and his heart stopped.

"We're going to Beacon? That same place with a Grimm Dragon flying around it? The same place where there are most likely hundreds of Grimm swarming the thing now? The same place where fucking crimson lightning is shooting out of? The same place where literally everyone with a pulse is trying to avoid because of that feeling of death? That place?!"

"Oh, don't forget to add on that after that crimson lightning started showing up basically everyone in a coma woke in a cold sweat. Even Yang somehow woke up." Sun added on.

"Sun… you absolute son of a bitch."

"OI! Son of a female monkey. Get your animals right." Sun reflexively blocked the trident that was stabbed at him with his staff and laughed. "Both Sage and Scarlet are helping the injured along with a couple of other doctors so they're all fine."

"Yeah, but we aren't going to be."

Sun's expression hardened once again, Neptune following his lead. "All right, so this is the situation. Both Ruby and Weiss are at Beacon right now, searching for Pyrrha and Jaune. We are going to go there, find them, hope to God that all of them are at the same place, rescue them, and get the hell out of Dodge. We're going to avoid Grimm as much as we can and we are staying the hell away from the Dragon. We're already having a decently large group so a couple more wouldn't hurt so lets ask around if any actual Huntsmen are there and willing to go." Neptune nodded, his face resolute.

"Oi. Did you say Ruby and the mini Ice Queen are still at Beacon?" A hard, dry, and terrifying voice spoke up from behind. Sun and Neptune turned around to see a man glaring at them, stinking of alcohol which somehow only made him more terrifying.

"Yeah they are. Who are you?" Sun asked, followed by Neptune's own question of "Mini-ice queen?"

"I'm Ruby's uncle. Now, are you sure they are still in that hell hole?" At Sun's nod. His face hardened. "I'm going after them. You keep on protecting the safe haven and searching for survivors."

"Hold up." Sun stepped up to Qrow and nearly quailed under his glare but stood strong. "We're coming too."

"You'll just get in my way."

"We won't. Besides, you need us. I bet you don't know how to start up a Bullhead to get to Beacon like Neptune here does."

"I have my ways kid. I don't need a couple more brats that I'm going to have to protect from the Grimm there. You're right, you won't be dead weight, you'll be worse."

"We're huntsmen too! Besides what if they're injured?! Name one other guy that knows how to perform actual medicine and not just the basics, along with actually knowing how to fight! They could die! Ruby could die!"

That comment halted Qrow in his tracks, who was walking away from the two boys. He clicked his tongue and gave them a glare that could freeze over the flames of Hell. "Well, what the fuck are you doing?! Move! Don't blame me if you get left behind! We need every second we can get!"

Qrow started running as Sun gave a small grin. He slapped Neptune on the arm and started running after Qrow.

Neptune just gave a small sigh before running to catch up with the both of them.

* * *

He had to. He had to! He had to get back to Beacon. Everybody was there. He had to protect them. He had to protect them all! Even though he was weak… he was weak but he wouldn't give up. His very soul cried out against that idea. He had to. He had to.

And so, Jaune Arc picked himself up and ran through the streets of Vale towards the Bullhead dock, his abandoned Scroll lighting up only a few seconds later by a text from Ruby that she had Pyrrha.

* * *

Omake: The mightiest of opponents

They neared towards him, dedicated towards consuming his flesh and very soul itself. He turned around and, for the first time in his life, Gilgamesh fled from the battlefield.

These opponents... they were impossible to defeat. All one could do was flee and, for all his might, Gilgamesh was no different. Yellow dots littered across his vision as he fled.

He couldn't believe it either. He, the King of Heroes Gilgamesh, was fleeing from the opponent in front of him. The first time he saw them, he arrogantly thought they were beneath him. He trusted his Gate to destroy the abomination before him, after all it had never failed him before.

It failed him this time. Only when they neared he saw the beings for what they truly were. Poltergeists, or some other form of incorporeal beings. He launched one of his swords, trusting in the Anti-Spiritual weapon to defeat the revolting beings before him.

It didn't even do anything. It didn't kill them, it didn't harm them, it didn't even slow them down. Before he could do anything, they raced towards him and simply touched him. He could feel his soul being wrenched apart and his body withering. Less than a minute later, Gilgamesh was left gasping and choking on the floor. He didn't know how, but he was alive. That should have been impossible. He _felt_ himself dying, his soul scattered onto the spiritual plane like dust into the wind. A time curse possibly? The reversion of causality? He didn't know how but when he saw the bright pink eldritch abomination approaching him he didn't even hesitate. His gate fully opened, the rippling gold covering the dark sky in the brightness of dawn. Not even against Enkidu had he summoned so many portals. There were billions of them. The sky ripped open and weapons that could each destroy mountains with ease rained down like drops of rain. Gilgamesh couldn't even see in front of him, so many weapons had been rained down. He truly believed that the beings were dead and gone. After all, none could surpass his might. That was the second last thing he thought before his second death, the first being a continuous string of curses so violent that sailors would go scarlet in shame.

When Gilgamesh somehow lived again, he didn't even hesitate. He pulled out Ea, confident that this weapon of his could defeat the abominations that had proven to be deadliest match he would ever face. Not even Enkidu had been as powerful as the beings in front of him. He had just enough time to fully charge up Ea before another abomination started to confront him. This one was pure crimson, the perfect coloring of blood. It raced towards him, and Gilgamesh let out a bloodlusting grin.

"Hear me Mongrels!" He called out. "You are truly the most powerful beings I've ever faced. Not even the Gods of Old could begin to compare to your might. However! You have made a fatal error in your calculations! You are versing the King of Heroes! I, Gilgamesh, have never been defeated before and I never will! Bow before my might! _**Enuma Elish!**_ "

A titanic ray that embodied death came flooding out of him, intent on wiping away the poltergeist in its strength. The flood of power that came bursting out would make Genesis feel ashamed.

The Poltergeist ran straight into the beam and for a moment Gilgamesh felt confident about its return to the grave. Then the crimson hand emerged from the beam that could rip apart planets by whim and at its full might, which it was at now, it could blow away the solar system and douse the Sun. It touched him and once again Gilgamesh decomposed into dust.

It took seven more tries for him to start to flee from the abominations, and fifty more until he found a Noble Phantasm that could affect the beings. It shocked him but apparently by consuming a special fruit, the one who ate the fruits could simply vanquish the ghosts by a simple swing of even the weakest of blades. This shocked him since, unlike anything else in his treasury, there appeared to be multiple of these Noble Phantasms. Yet they weren't weakened at all. Usually he would be insulted and he was, but after dying another twelve times more Gilgamesh just decided to be thankful. After all, apparently the effects of the Noble Phantasm was only temporary. He collected the trophies that littered across the ground he stood upon and tossed them into his Gate while keeping careful watch for the abominations. Once he found it, he would consume the holy fruit and then strike down the beings with vengeance. He nearly died again when he saw the exact same abomination he killed charging at him not even a minute later.

'These beings...' He thought. 'Their rate of regeneration is nigh-impossible.' After dying multiple more times, Gilgamesh finally collected all the trophies and vanquished all the abominations that lied in the realm he was in. He wasn't sure when it had occurred but at sometime, he had entered a completely different realm. Truly the Multiverse was a conniving and dangerous place, one to be feared for sure.

When he killed the final abomination to collect the trophy that laid behind it, Gilgamesh finally stood victorious. Relieved at the victory, he howled in laughter and relief.

"HAH! DO YOU SEE THIS MONGRELS?! DO YOU?! I HAVE SLAYED EVERY LAST ONE OF YOUR KIND AT LONG LAST! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Kirei opened the door in the church, intent on questioning if the King of Heroes had finally seen the glory of his Mapo Tofu, ghost pepper and diablo sauce edition mind you, when he saw Gilgamesh laughing like a crazed hyena over a machine of some kind. He recognized the machine before he slowly walked backwards and shut the door. He broke out into a run before coming to a stop in sudden realization. The King of Heroes had an Anti-World Noble Phantasm at his disposal. There was literally no place for him to run.

Though that begged the question of why Ea had laid abandoned in the corner of his room, along with hordes of other Noble Phantasms.

Kirei quickly gulped down some of his Mapo Tofu, savoring the spice that flowed throughout his entire body, before shaking his head and retreating towards his spartan like bedroom.

After all, if the King of Heroes wanted to laugh after winning something then he would let him.

Though even Kirei couldn't quite believe how ecstatic Gilgamesh had been when the King of Heroes had just beaten the first level of Pac-Man.

"WHAT?! THERE ARE MORE OF YOUR KIND?! FOOL! I WILL VANQUISH ALL THOSE THAT LAY BEFORE ME WITH THE POWER OF THE ALMIGHTY HOLY FRUIT THAT TURN YOU MONGRELS BLUE!"

* * *

 **Holy SHIT! Screw having only a bit more, that was nearly double the previous chapter! God damn!**

 **Please review and tell me any complaints, advice, or anything. It helps me a ton!**

 **All right, for those confused about the dragon reference and the Presence reference, they were references to DxD, which I can read fanfics about but not watch it or else I feel like a massive pervert even though the fanfics are just as perverted… for some reason, and the reference to Presence is from Third Fang. He's insane. The most insane author on FF. On the planet. It's amazing.**

 **Thanks for reading this!**

 **Strange wants: For some reason I imagined an AMV of Eren from AOT and Lelouch of Code Geass to the song Moves like Jagger.**

 **With the part where it says Moves like Jagger showing Eren as a pun on Jaeger and "Look into my eyes and I'll own you" showing Lelouch.**

 **Maybe call it Moves like Jaeger**

 **I don't know.**

 **I'll leave now.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So some people wanted more Fate stuff. Some wanted even more RWBY stuff. So I decided to do both! Whoo!**

Chapter 3: Hope is for the despairing

Harbinger twirled and danced, every slight movement cutting down a Grimm no matter how powerful. A Nevermore tried to swoop in and take him surprise, but Harbinger apparently had other ideas. The scythe malfunctioned and, without Qrow pulling the trigger, shot the head of a Griffon in the air, the bullet taking it down and making the Griffon fall out of the sky and slam down onto the Nevermore, forcing them to both eat steel as they both slammed into a nearby skyscraper. The building then toppled over, crushing a good two dozen more of the flying monstrosities and caused the ground to tremble, leading to multiple some Ursi and Boarbatusks to lose their footing and being easy prey for the Huntsman.

"Heh, why don't you try again?" Qrow taunted the Grimm before him. "Your buddies just had… a spurt of bad luck, ya know what I'm sayin?" Even as he spoke seemingly carefreely, Qrow let his Branwen blood sing by slicing through his enemies like a fire Dust enhanced sword through butter.

"Hey you two!" He shouted back even as he flipped over an incoming Grimm and sliced its head off, using its body as a way to jump up to the next flying Grimm before it dissipated into the black sparks. "How long does it take to hotwire a bullhead?!"

"We've been here for ten seconds!" Sun shouted back even as he followed Neptune's instructions. Colored wires by the hundreds were assorted underneath the floor panel he had pulled open and all of them were locked into some other panel. And it wasn't only that either. Lightning Dust, Gravity Dust, Fire Dust, there were so many types of Dust with so many different wires each that it would have taken a good decade for Sun to figure out what went where, and only after a couple thousand times of blowing himself up in the process.

Neptune's eyes flickered across every wire, remembering every cord and every gear to use, every mechanism in the Bullhead, even as Qrow shouted back, "Bullshit! It's been a good three minutes at least!"

The Huntsman shot off to block any Grimm from reaching the Bullhead, but there were too many. In exchange for killing three more Nevermores, a couple of Beowolves came through. "Heads up!" He called back to the kids. "Grimm incoming!"

Sun flinched and turned back to the Grimm approaching. He made to draw his weapons, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, to kill them but something else beat them to it.

"Hyaaa!" A steel sword came out of seemingly nowhere, its worn and war torn blade able to cut through the Beowolves with ease. Sun had seen that sword before, he could never forget it. After all, it was the blade that belonged to one of his friends, which was named… "Crocea Mors!" Sun cried out in disbelief.

Shaggy blond hair popped into view as Jaune Arc easily carved open the last Beowolf. Even to him such weak beasts were no threat. He turned back to Sun and the monkey faunus did a double take at his eyes. They were puffy and red, like he had been crying. But most of all, they were… hollow.

Sun felt sick to his gut. He knew that look. He had the same one when his brothers and sisters in all but blood had died. And if Jaune had that look while Ren and Nora were knocked out at the evacuation zone then Pyrrha must have…

Jaune stepped onto the Bullhead before he asked, "This is going to Beacon right?" Sun nodded dumbly in response to the question. "I'll help defend, you do what you need to do the get this flying. We need to go quick, Pyrrha's in danger." His fists clenched in seething rage. "She's facing the person who started all of this. The woman was able to kill Ozpin!"

Sun felt a swooping sensation in his gut at those words, his stomach somehow up in his throat while also pooling down to his feet, weighed down by dread. Ozpin was dead? What… shock couldn't even begin to describe his state right now. Sun forced his mind to think, think and get back into gear. He could deal with this later, he didn't have time to think about this now. First of all they had to get the Bullhead up and running _now_ , if they wanted to have any chance of saving the others. Good news was that Pyrrha was alive, but if she was versing the same person that… killed… Ozpin, then she wouldn't be for much longer. No, she might even be dead right now.

Unknown to both of them and Qrow, Neptune had already hotwired the Bullhead to be able to fly about a minute ago. What he was searching for now was… there it is. He grinned before shouting back at Sun, Jaune and Qrow, saying "We're good!" ecstatically. Due to his focus, he hadn't even noticed Jaune talk.

Qrow harrumphed before brutally slicing off another head of a… well, hell if he knew but it was dead now. He doubled back towards whooping monkey faunus and the kid that started the Bullhead. He shifted his scythe into the gun form and taking a couple of potshots while backpedaling up the steel stairs.

The ramp closed quickly, the last bullet sneaking out and rocketing into the head of another flying Grimm. Qrow didn't put away his weapon though, that would be either stupid or suicidal of which he was neither, though Tai might beg to differ on the first one.

"I thought hotwirings entire purpose was to have a get away and to have it _fast_. Three minutes could mean the difference between life and death." He growled at the students. Wait, there were three now? God dammit, they were multiplying. "What the hell are you doing here?" He growled to the new kid but before he could open his mouth Qrow cut him off. "Fuck it. We have no damn time to waste. Blue! Get the damn thing flying!" He commanded towards Neptune. He glared at the two blondes. "Blond one and blond two! Get your shit ready, cause we're about to have the fight of our lives. Before that though, help Blue if he needs it." All three of them nodded and rushed off.

Neptune settled into the main pilot seat, and placed his hands onto the mechanisms to control the Bullhead. Switches by the dozens were flipped and even more were left untouched. "You know," Neptune said while he adjusted the coordinates for Beacon academy and the Bullhead started the engines to fly. "I actually had the thing hotwired within the second minute."

Qrow narrowed his eyes at him, as if saying he better have a good explanation for why the kid had delayed them or he would toss him off the flying machinery straight into the Nevermores starting to scratch the Bullhead, him piloting the thing be damned.

"What took most of the time was actually finding something else, and making sure the wires for it weren't damaged somehow." He continued speaking. "You see, usually Bullheads need authorization from the CCT to do a couple of things but in the middle of Grimm infested lands they can't wait for something like that." Nevermores swarmed across their vision as even Qrow widened his eyes at sheer amount of them. Neptune, however, continued speaking casually even while fiddling with a couple of knobs. "So Bullhead pilots can learn how to bypass their commands, though this is only for fighting Bullheads like Beacons and not industrial ones."

"First a pulse of pure energy powered by lightning dust reaches out and judges that there isn't a working CCT within over a hundred miles of it. Once that happens, multiple other triggers are set off to work to use the computers navigation system to confirm that there are no known villages nearby and also to constantly use small amounts of lightning dust to set off a sonar to see if there are Grimm close to the Bullhead while any soundwaves blocked are reported back and compared to the computer's stored examples of Grimm to confirm its existence. Once every test is confirmed within a space of four point seven seconds, the Pilot can… start to have some _fun_." Neptune flipped open a small glass cover which covered a large red button and _slammed_ his hand down onto it, his smile making just the right side of viciousness in Qrow's eyes.

' _Weapon system activated! Nevermore, Manticores, and Griffons located! Deploying rapid fire air interception missiles!'_

And then the sky _ruptured_ in explosions and black sparks filled all of the passengers and pilot's vision.

* * *

Angra Mainyu had demonstrated its full power, Shirou realized. The portal was one of its last cards, along with the flames that lit up the night with its eldritch glow. The flames which had shaped him into the blade he was now once again scorched the earth with its vile strength after ten full years.

These flames were where Kiritsugu found him, saved him, so long ago, and gave the broken boy a purpose. But before Kiritsugu found him, before the purity and soft strength of Avalon had enveloped him, Shirou had walked amongst these flames.

He had walked and walked, walked past those two old men who burned to death, past the kid who was buried in the rubble and laid unmoving while the flames consumed him. He trudged past the woman who cried out for anyone to help her and her baby, the infant crying before silently suffocating from the smoke while the mother followed soon after.

He walked past and didn't so much as glance towards the others who cried out for anyone to save them.

Hundreds of burns littered across his skin but he continued trudging through the field of flames. He was long past the point where any other would have given up and let themselves die to prevent the pain the flames wrought upon them.

The flames wanted to consume and where others resisted, he let the flames consume him. He tossed away his pride, the remnant of it burning down into cinders. The flames wanted more though and so he tossed away his sense of reality. He fed his reason and he later fed his sanity to the fire.

Yet the flames still wanted more of him, more to burn, more to feed upon. And so Shirou fed the flames everything he had. He gave his memories to the flames, watching as everything that made him up was devoured. Memories was what made up a being, without it there was not any man still behind, only a husk, an empty shell which had no purpose in life. The boy who walked through flames wanted to live so bad he tossed away his reason to survive in the first place.

The flames from his childhood. The ones that haunted his nightmares for years, the same ones that burned away all that he was and nearly killed him, were before him again.

Shirou laughed.

He laughed because he felt no fear. It wasn't that he felt fear but pushed it away like he did so many times during the Holy Grail War.

It was that he literally felt no fear within him.

After all, there was nothing to fear. Then he had been a boy, someone that could do nothing but hope to live as long as possible. Now he had faced down far fiercer and far more dangerous beings.

He had faced Heracles himself, the bastard of Zeus. The greatest Greek Hero.

He had faced and killed the Corrupted Perfect King, Arthur, empowered by Angra Mainyu.

He had faced the Shadow, a being that was made to devour and kill everything.

Worst of all, though with words and not swords, he had faced himself. His own ideals born from the fire that had consumed him, he had to face both that and the being that walked into hell for following the same ideals. Archer was another version of himself driven mad by his own ideals of being a hero and turned in a bitter, twisted being that couldn't be called a man that preferred being wiped out of existence in comparison to the hell he was in now. Shirou had to face both his own future and the broken man that became of it. After that, how could he be scared of the fire that literally _embodied_ reality?

More than all though, he had Excalibur in his hands. Saber was behind him and supporting his path, assisting him in his quest to end the being spouting those very flames.

Being frightened by some fire, even if it was conjured from the vilest substance he could have imagined? The very idea was laughable.

After all, the fire might have forged him into the blade he was today but the Holy Grail had caused him to open his eyes to the insanity of reality.

Shirou grinned wildly, the madness which could only be born from a wielder of a reality marble dancing in his eyes. He opened his mouth as words whose weight exceeded the power of reality was let loose.

 _ **Born from cursed fire; awakened by legendary steel**_

With the second line of his aria let free, he let loose the power of Excalibur and a golden ray shone out of the blade, splitting the darkened skies above him.

* * *

Ruby sawed through another Beowolf before flipping and using her Semblance to split apart into rose petals and appear behind an Ursa, cutting off one of its legs to remove its movement before flipping over it and sawing off its head.

It was nearly effortless, operative word being nearly. It still took some effort and with her going through, what, seventeen Ursa, it was starting to get tiring. She lost count how many Beowolves she had killed by now, just knowing that it had far surpassed the quadruple digits easily.

That might be an exaggeration but it sure felt like it at least! She was tiring fast but she knew that it wasn't fully due to the Grimm she was fighting, though that certainly was a factor. Her silver eyes glanced up to the storm of roses floating across the entire battlefield, all of them staying within a certain radius with her command even though it was taxing on her aura.

Pyrrha's body was nowhere in sight. Even if one searched all over Remnant, they wouldn't even find a trace of her.

Simply transforming herself and whatever she was holding was easy if it was for a short time. Making sure whatever she was holding actually stayed as rose petals for a longer time was far more complex.

Keeping herself and whatever she was holding as rose petals for an extended amount of time? Nearly impossible and drained her aura by a large amount for a short amount of time, maybe three minutes or so. That was the main reason that, while she kept Pyrrha in constant rose form, she used only short bursts for herself, to conserve some aura.

She tried rushing away from the crimson lightning storm that appeared out of _nowhere_ and to make a run for it. She succeeded also, able to rush towards the docks from where the Bullheads were usually located at. From there she would use some of her fire dust, make it explode in the sky which was her and Weiss's agreed sign to use if either one of them found Pyrrha after they split up to find her when the tower had collapsed. Once Weiss saw it and hurried back, they would both be able to leave. It was all perfectly planned out. Too bad neither of them thought of the idea that there were no Bullheads to take them to back to the city of Vale.

Mind flashing back to Professor Port's first class, Ruby used her scythe as a pole to propel her to the opposite end of the Boarbatusk charging at her and rushed at the Grimm. Stabbing the scythe into the beast's underside, she gave a mighty heave to flip it onto its back before plunging her weapon into the Grimms head and ripping it off. The body laid still for a silent second before disintegrating into the usual specks of smoke that occurred whenever a Grimm died.

Silver eyes took in the entire battlefield of Grimm, from a couple of Beowolves to a flock of Griffon, a horde of Ursa to a murder of Nevermores, and even a couple of Death Stalkers and a King Taijitu.

God she wished she had some cookies right now. Actually if she could wish for anything she would wish for a team of fully trained Huntsmen to help her right now along with a medic for Pyrrha. She wouldn't be losing blood anytime soon since, you know, she had no blood to lose since she was just a pile of roses right now but she couldn't keep that up forever.

Deciding that standing her ground and fighting would be suicidal even if this was the agreed meeting location, Ruby quickly transformed herself into a large cluster of rose petals and sped out of there, the storm of roses following her with a mental command.

Retreating back into the trees, the roses quickly flew up above onto a tall one which could support both of their weight. Both Ruby and Pyrrha transformed back into their original selves with Pyrrha unconscious and bleeding heavily in Ruby's arms while the girl herself was panting and clearly out of breath.

"Hah. Ugh, that took more aura than I thought." Ruby said to herself while panting. She tried to have a look around but it was dark since the clouds covered the moon. At the corner of her left eye's vision she saw a white spark lighting, it glow only making it stand out far more than usual due to the darkness surrounding the island. She craned her neck and looked towards the glow, hope fluttering about in her chest. Was it?

Yes! It was the white shine of Weiss's glyphs! Since it was traveling towards the docks she could safely assume that Weiss saw the signal. Ruby turned both herself and Pyrrha into rose petals once again, speeding towards the glow of Weiss's Semblance.

"Weiss!" She cried out as she landed right next to the petite girl that was stabbing a Beowolf.

"Ruby?! What are you doing here, you-" She was cut off from an attack by an Ursa that appeared from behind here, only managing to dodge the lethal swipe with the noise the Ursa made when running through the bushes warning her. Ruby started running towards the Ursa and tried swinging her scythe. The Grimm, whose size belied the speed it showed, dodged quickly and tried to ram into the small girl. Her eyes widened before leaping to the side to barely avoid the the attack while Weiss used the continuing velocity of the Ursa against it by flipping over it and plunging her rapier into the Grimm, the Ursa being unable to stop only forced it take more damage as Myrtenaster ripped through its skin like paper and dealt enormous amounts of damage to the beast.

The Ursa stumbled due to the damage, though it didn't fall, while Ruby sped towards it, not using her Semblance, and used her deadly scythe to cut off the head of the beast.

They both gasped for breath, sweat pouring down the faces of the girls. Ruby stumbled and slumped against a tree for support and to catch a small break. "How many… Grimm was that?"

Weiss plunged her rapier into the ground and used it as a support to remain standing up, only barely managing to avoid falling down in exhaustion like Ruby, too tired to care about how unproper she looked. "Far, far too many."

Ruby sighed in response before saying, "That sounds about right. I would kill for a plate of cookies right now. No, a truckload! No, a mountain made of cookies! Dedicated to me!"

Usually Weiss would lecture Ruby about her diet of only cookies but the pure similarity of her attitude compared to far better times in Beacon made her laugh, half in relief the other half being in pure hysterics. She actually started howling in laughter as she slumped to the ground, her pure white combat skirt getting grass and mud stains all over it but she couldn't care less. In her mind an image of her father, stern as always, appeared and started berating for acting in a conduct far below the appropriate level of a Schnee. The thought only made her start laughing even harder before before finally stopping, though only after a few minutes and Ruby joining in.

"You might dine on such a low class treats as cookies," Weiss drawled teasingly, "however I will only feast upon the finest of cakes made by my cake butler."

Ruby gasped, far too loudly and shocked to be anywhere close to genuine, before saying, "Take that back! Not liking cookies, how dare you! Heathen! All of you cookie hating monsters!"

That got Weiss chuckling a bit more before her darting up in wide up panic. "Wait what?!"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Chill Weiss, I was only joking. Well, kinda."

"Not that you dolt!" Weiss shot back. "Where's Pyrrha, your signal said you have her?!"

Ruby only pointed upwards in response. Weiss looked upwards only to see the sky turn red. Roses, they were everywhere. Floating gently in the air even though there was no breeze, some lying on the ground, when she meant everywhere she meant _everywhere._

"Ruby…" She said involuntary, too much in awe in what she was seeing to properly say anything concrete, "what's going on?"

"My semblance," Ruby responded wearly, "is the power to turn into roses, not speed like what Pyrrha said. I'm able to turn into roses along with whatever I'm holding, along with some stuff that I am not touching as long as it doesn't try to resist me but I have to touch it first. It can't be that big either."

Weiss seemed shocked at Ruby's Semblance though she soon shook it off. After all, her Semblance has effects on gravity and time of all things, Ruby being able to transform a couple of objects into roses isn't exactly a stretch. Blake makes literal clones of herself while Yang is able to absorb damage with her frankly huge amount of aura before using that damage to increase her own power, most likely somehow storing kinetic energy though that wasn't guaranteed. Semblances are wild, magical things that could be extremely unpredictable and laughs into the face of physics.

She warily eyed the roses and asked, "So all of these roses are Pyrrha?"

"Yeah," Ruby confirmed while nodding. "She was losing blood fast and this was the only thing I could think of." Her red aura flickered around her and she groaned. "It's draining my aura like mad though. I doubt I can hold it for that much longer."

"And then we're in a far worse position." Weiss deduced with a grim horror. Facing all of these hundreds of Grimm with only her, Ruby with no aura, and Pyrrha apparently losing lots of blood and forcing them to take care of a wounded person. Eventually a Grimm would get lucky and score a blow on Ruby which, without aura, could severely harm her… or worse.

She nibbled on her delicate bottom lip, a small nervous tick of hers. There were no good options at the current moment. There were a couple of temporary solutions but no actual good ones that ended up with all of them coming out of this catastrophe alive.

Wait, what about the Bullheads? "Ruby," Weiss turned towards her leader, "why did you leave the docks?"

Ruby snapped her eyes open, closing a bit too long for it to be a simple blink. Her gaze focused on Weiss worriedly. "There aren't any Bullheads at the docks. We can't leave from there."

There wasn't any Bullheads? Weiss's stomach dropped in dread even as she cursed angrily. There weren't any Bullheads. Of course there weren't, it was obvious. The evacuation before was mandatory for everybody, not just the students, and so the Bullhead fliers left. Even if Sun told the pilots to wait for them, they would at most wait for five minutes before leaving since there was a bloody invasion going on right now. If they waited for any more time they would be considered suicidal with the amounts of Grimm in the sky right now.

Wait a second. While Bullheads could fly, not all things that could fly were Bullheads. "Could we use the school lockers? We could input a random location in Vale and get out of this death trap."

"I thought of that. But we can't." Ruby said quietly, her aura flickering wildly now and her eyes were definitely shutting now, close to asleep. "Cinder is there."

"Cinder… the student from Mistral?" Weiss asked confused.

"Yeah." Ruby confirmed. "She set this whole invasion up. She killed _thousands_ , Weiss. Thousands of people that just tried to live their life." Her voice cracked a bit this at despair over the lost lives. "She even beat and nearly killed Pyrrha when she tried fighting her."

Weiss was stunned for a minute. "A _student_ set up this whole catastrophe? No, that's not possible. If she did, then there is literally no possible way she is a student. Defeating Pyrrha is an extremely notable accomplishment but if she had to fight Pyrrha, she is no doubt at least tired."

"She was also able to kill Headmaster Ozpin." Ruby stated quietly.

Weiss's mind grinded to a halt. "Headmaster Ozpin?" She asked unbelievingly. "THE Headmaster Ozpin?! Our Headmaster. Who happens to be one of the mightiest Huntsmen on the entire _planet_ of Remnant? THAT Headmaster Ozpin?! He's dead?!"

"Yeah, I know. It's insane." Ruby responded. "I can't believe he's gone, but if he actually is then if we fought against Cinder, even when she is exhausted, we would die."

Weiss couldn't help but agree. Deep sorrow resonated within her. Headmaster Ozpin was a kind man, and it was only right to mourn the passing of someone like him. But he wasn't just kind, he was far more. He was a constant for Remnant as a total, known far and wide across the planet.

She flinched at the growl she heard. The Grimm! They were attracted towards both of their negative emotions, of which they were basically broadcasting right now. Ruby groaned as she got up and collected Crescent Rose but it slipped out of her hands. The Storm of Roses fluttered wildly around the both of them.

By the gods, Crescent Rose actually slipped from Ruby's hands. With the way she treats that weapon as her lover, that itself should be a sign of the coming apocalypse. Though that might have already been here seeing as another dozen Beowolves came stalking out of the bushes, followed by three Ursi Majors, two coming from the front while another came out of the bushes and roared.

"Ruby!" Weiss whispered urgently. "We both have to fight. I know its hard but can you continue?"

Ruby nodded before standing. "Just in case I've been saving my bullets. Ice Flower and then you handle the Beowolves while I take the Ursi. No time to argue, just go!" She had greater firepower compared to Weiss after all, the Ursi would be easier to deal with for her than Team RWBY's resident Ice Queen.

"Fine!" Weiss snapped.

Ruby mechashifted her scythe into the sniper form before jumping up and shooting a couple of bullets. Weiss used one of her glyphs to freeze the bullets before they expertly shot through and froze three of the charging Beowolves. At the same time, the recoil of the fired shots sent Ruby flying backwards where she flipped upside down and glared at the charging Ursa Major.

She shot a electric dust bullet which also had the added effect of paralyzation along with the damage of the bullet while also pushing her upwards into the sky. When the Grimm was paralyzed for a split second Ruby once again mechashifted her sniper back into its scythe form and tried to cut through the Ursa. Sadly, the paralysis effect ended before that and the Grimm used its armor to block the lethal blow to only leaving a mid sized scratch on the bone plates.

The Ursa swiped at Ruby but she rolled after having landed her feet on the ground. The scythe unfolded into its War Scythe form where the blade rotated ninety degrees and Ruby flipped and twirled the unfolded scythe to dodge the Beowolf which swiped at her from behind and also to kill it while dealing some damage to the Ursa Major when the scythe dug deep into its skin. Ruby wrenched it out which caused the Grimm to let out an agonised roar. Wasting no time, Ruby twirled her scythe to make the blade to come up from below and cut off the head of the Ursa Major, avoiding the annoying armor completely.

She huffed a silent breath of relief before widening and flinging herself out of the way when her instincts flared up. It was too late of a reaction though and so the Ursa Major, which had snuck up on her from behind, dealt heavy damage to her. She was flung into the trees where her head collided with the trunk and ripped right through the tree before her back slammed into the tree behind it, leaving a large mark.

She groaned even as she slipped into the grasp of unconscious as her minute amount of aura, which had protected her somewhat from the blow, disappeared entirely. The Storm of Roses gathered up and bunch together, contorting and twisting into a form that looked like a human body. Deep red turned into a brighter color of crimson while many other roses turned into a light skin color.

The roses became a myriad of different colors and contorted into the form of Pyrrha Nikos, who landed onto Ruby.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted before blocking a hit by the last beowolf and stabbing through it, returning it into smoke. She was too late in drawing it back so she only managed to partially block the heavy hit of the last Ursa major and was flung back. Since she managed to block it, she didn't go flying through any trees but she did leave a human shaped indent on one.

She blearily opened her eyes only to see the Ursa Major bring up its paw to smash into Ruby. Ruby was out cold along with Pyrrha who was resting on her lap, both of them unable to do anything to avoid getting killed.

No.

The paw of the Ursa Major swung.

No.

It neared towards the bodies of both of her friends, her _family_ , that she had gained at Beacon.

No. No. _No_.

That couldn't be allowed.

Losing them? She wouldn't allow it.

A white glyph spun into existence, generated from the purest form of desperation. It flickered in and out of shape though, the white glow starting to fade away.

She swore this on her name and pride. Not on the pride of the Schnee.

The Glyph's image strengthened, spinning into an existence that seemed to be imprinted in reality.

But on her pride as Weiss, a member of Team RWBY, and partner to Ruby Rose!

A sword and hand reached out of the Glyph, close but not nearly enough to cover the distance between the Ursa Major and Ruby and Pyrrha.

She swore this on the pride of Weiss, the _huntress!_

A glowing white sword, more pure than the freshest of snow, reached out of the glyph. It was followed by a knight that seemed like it was out of the fantasy of fairy tales, ones where the heroes always come at the last minute and slay the enemies .

It stabbed between the miniscule distance between the Ursa paw and Weiss's true family.

It was enough to block the blow and send the Ursa sprawling from being off balance. The knight swung its sword and parried the blow of the Ursa charging at Weiss. The radiant knight placed one of its hands behind the sword to fully push it off and, while the Ursa Major was off balance from the parry, ran the sword through the Grimm's body and twisted. The Grimm let out one last cry of agony before dissipating into black smoke.

The cry of agony called other Grimm to the field, and a flock of Griffons appeared from the sky. They started diving down at the knight, intent on tearing it apart, even while the Griffons were battered out of the sky with a simple swing of the knight's sword. The final Ursa Major charged at the knight but was battered away with a kick.

Weiss just stared at the knight. Had she, had she finally summoned a complete avatar of a foe that she had previously defeated? And the Arma Gigas at that?

Summoning was the only difficulty she had with manipulating her Semblance. And she had finally done it! Weiss expected to feel some joy, and while a small fraction of delight was there, it was all buried under worry and fear, for Ruby's and Pyrrha's wellbeing, and absolute rage at the Grimm for even daring to _think_ about hurting them.

She ran over to Ruby and kneeled down to her and shook her, to scared to wake up Pyrrha with the unholy amount of injuries she took. "Ruby! Ruby! Wake up you dolt!"

When Ruby didn't respond Weiss clicked her tongue and took out Myrtenaster. She remembered studying about this early in her childhood with her dozens of assigned tutors all designated to become the best she could be to represent the Schnee Dust Company as Winter was still the heir at the time. It was terribly inefficient but it could be helpful here.

She unlocked the dust chamber of Myrtenaster and took out three vials of highly refined dust. To be specific, it was the electric, fire, and ice dust vials. She cracked a small piece of each crystal, making sure her face stayed clear of the backlash from the crystals where fire licked at her hands, lightning shocked her body, while the ice set a tiny bit of frost onto her fingers, and placed all three small shards in her hand. She sent some aura to her hand and held it above Ruby's face.

The electric dust sparked within her hand and hit the other two crystals, causing a reaction as fire and ice melded together for a single, no, a half-second before the reaction between two dust created water which splashed down from her hand onto Ruby's face,

Ruby woke up with a gasp, sputtering and coughing from the impromptu wake up. Weiss grabbed Pyrrha and gently lifted her up. "C'mon Ruby. Wake up, we have to go now."

"Weiss, what?" Ruby asked groggily before her mind restarted itself and she nearly jumped up. Her entire body was so sore and her head was hurting something fierce but she ignored it for now. She noticed a glow from her right side and turned to look at what could have caused the shine. She gawked at a Knight that was shining with a fierce light who was being overrun as dozens of Griffons were swooping at it and dealing damage. "Weiss… what?" She repeated.

"Family Semblance. No time, we're running now! Can you transform Pyrrha again?"

Ruby shook her head. "I can't, I'm out of aura. I won't be able to even activate my Semblance, much less do that draining move. We have to run."

Weiss cursed. There was no way they would get out of the forest without running into more Grimm and the both of them were far too tired to deal with Grimm at the current moment.

"We can't go anywhere." Weiss said worriedly. "Cinder is at Beacon where the lockers still are, and if she truly killed the Headmaster then going anywhere near her is suicide. But staying here is also suicide, we can't deal with that many more Grimm."

"Cinder isn't guaranteed to be at Beacon while the Grimm are guaranteed to hunt us down and kill us." Ruby said darkly. "I'd rather go with the death with a chance of survival than the guaranteed suicide. Right, we're heading towards Beacon."

Weiss nodded in confirmation. "How will we get there? We can't just run through the forest in this dark, we'd have no idea where we're going."

"Easy." Ruby pointed out. "Just run to the fire burning everything."

Weiss stiffened and turned her head with dread. She didn't notice before but there were small signs of flames like smoke and a dull glow.

"I hate this plan." She grouched. "Usually people would run away from fire, not towards it."

"Our team was never normal." Ruby said. "Besides this is our only choice."

"Oh trust me, I'm not saying that it isn't our best choice. I'm just also saying that it's a terrible idea."

"That's true." Ruby conceded the point to Weiss. "We can't do anything about it though so we have to run." Her legs trembled slightly at the exhausting prospect of running anywhere but she ignored it.

Weiss gave a worried glance to Ruby. "At the very least give me Pyrrha. You can barely stand, the act of running itself is pushing your limit right now. Running with extra weight on you should be quite frankly next to impossible right now."

"No." Ruby responded firmly as she adjusted Pyrrha into an easier position. "You're going to have to deal with the Grimm that comes our way." Silver eyes glanced to the massive battle going on between the Knight and the other Grimm, where the Knight was slowly getting overwhelmed.

"Your Knight can cover us by drawing the Grimm to it, but the rest you're going to have to kill. I'll support with Crescent Rose's rifle form but I can only support you. I'll carry Pyrrha so you won't have to carry her and protect all three of us at the same time." If she laid Pyrrha around her left arm and shoulder she should, theoretically, be able to shoot the rifle.

Reasonable and the best choice they currently had. They were both exhausted but she at least had aura left while Ruby didn't. She nodded and the both of them started jogging through the bushes, trying to both conserve energy and move quickly, the Knight following them even as it had to escape from the Grimm that had managed to finally hit a lasting blow, removing its arm not holding the sword.

They ran into a large amount of Grimm but they all went for the Knight rather than the two of them, focused on defeating and killing the largest threat. A couple of Beowolves focused on them but Weiss didn't even have to bother battling them as Ruby shot them, Pyrrha's weight straining her left arm. However the recoil from Crescent Rose sent up a jolt of pain into her right arm. She winced from the pain, the weapons recoil was designed to assist with her moving but unfortunately she never took into account the damage she would do to herself with the recoil when she was without aura.

Even worse, the recoil was enough to jolt and hurt Pyrrha, causing even more blood to flow out of her wounds.

She couldn't do anything. She couldn't shoot in fear of hurting Pyrrha, the jolt of her running was hurting Pyrrha, hell if she did nothing Pyrrha was still bleeding heavily from her hundreds of wounds.

She growled. There wasn't anything she could do! Her aura was completely gone; she didn't even feel a spark of the normally warm and constant companion of her very soul. Without that she couldn't access her Semblance. She didn't have the training or experience to use her Semblance without her aura.

Even if she tried it was far too risky. Her Semblance was more complex than most huntsmen and huntresses, she literally transformed matter into roses with using her aura as a way to control the said roses. If she turns Pyrrha into roses and loses control of her own Semblance, she might not be able to reverse the transformation and kill Pyrrha. She didn't know how likely killing Pyrrha through her Semblance but she wasn't exactly eager to figure it out either.

The Knight was still behind them, fending off many of the Grimm coming after them. It was going to die soon though, the both of them knew that. It was able to hold the stampede of Grimm for a minute more but it finally got unlucky when the Knight didn't spot a Nevermore behind it.

The Nevermore screeched and grabbed the knight with its talons. The Grimm flapped its wings, lifting up the Knight high into the air. The Knight tried to swipe at the Nevermore with its sword but the arm was bitten by a Griffon. It only delayed the Knight's attack for a moment but that was enough. Griffon, Manticores, and Nevermore swarmed the Knight, attacking it from all directions even while the Nevermore carrying it flew higher into the air. There must have been a good, or really really bad in this case, seven dozen of the flying monstrosities.

The remaining arm of the Knight was quickly torn off, the arm and sword falling through the air before dissipating into white sparks. With no arms to defend itself the Knight was helpless, being torn limb from limb in a slow and gradual process. First its right leg followed by its left, the torso evaporating as it was cut off from the main body, finally ending with the Knight's head. The body of the Knight fell apart and the entire the forest was filled with the white sparks that came from the Knight's death.

Weiss stumbled as she felt the connection between her and the Knight cut off in a violent manner. She fell down onto the grass, unable to breathe for a few panicking moments.

"Weiss!" She felt more than heard Ruby call out. "Oh no. No, please no!"

It seemed like the situation surpassed their expectations in terms of catastrophes. Now Pyrrha was fatally injured, Weiss was somehow hurt, and Ruby herself ran out of aura.

"Can you get up?" She whispered to Weiss, hoping beyond hope that she could.

"I-I can't." Weiss breathed out. Everything hurt and burned, it felt as if she was being torn limb from limb. Was the damage from the Arma Gigas reflected back onto her? No, that couldn't be possible. Winter had never described a pain reflection if the summons die when she lectured Weiss on summoning. Then what happened?

She felt Ruby picking her up, struggling to hold both her and Pyrrha while also running. Ruby was already exhausted and barely able to run, Pyrrha only added onto the effort with her weight. Left alone Ruby would most likely die, but there was at least that small _chance_ of survival. Adding in Weiss's weight, no matter how slight she was, left no chance of survival for all three of them.

"Ruby…" She whispered, terrified of the next words she was about to say but accepting for some reason. "Let me go."

Ruby's head spun around so fast to face her that it nearly gave her whiplash. It would have been funny if not for the shock that her leader was expressing which was soon replaced with pure rage. "What are you saying?! Are you asking me to abandon you?! No! _Hell_ no!" A crimson lightning bolt seemed to strike the heavens from the earth as she said that, and a feeling of death washed over all of them, seemingly in complete contrast to what she the heavens seemed to say 'that won't be your choice.'

She started running faster, rage and fear fueling her and washing away the exhaustion. Even still, the sounds of Grimm approaching were increasing, the beasts closing in, the cries of the Grimm seemingly exponentially multiplying.

Ruby ran valiantly but with both Pyrrha's and Weiss's weight along with two bodies being large enough so that even with them being sideways they were blocking her view, it only got to a point where she tripped on a root. Both Weiss and Pyrrha were sent flying out of Ruby's grip while the Grimm charged out of the bushes snarling like mad beasts.

She withdrew Crescent Rose, which was in its portable form stored under her cloak at the waist, and shoved into the way of a rushing Beowolf. She was able to parry the paw that it lifted before she got squished like a grape and she rolled away. She leaped up and the Beowolf started charging at her, intent on ripping her head off. She deployed Crescent Rose into its full scythe form, sidestepped the attack, and sheared the Beowolf's head off before she paled and lunged out of the way of the oncoming Ursa.

She scrambled onto her feet again and took in the entire battlefield, even though it was extremely dark. She tried to take in every Grimm she would have to fight to get her friends to safety-?!

That was the moment when Ruby Rose finally gave up on the idea, the foolish notion and hope of the possibility, that she and her friends getting out of Beacon safe and alive, that they wouldn't fall on this day. That they would actually survive.

The darkness that was surrounding her wasn't the complete lack of light from the clouds blocking the moonlight. Hell, she wasn't even sure if the clouds were covering the moon now. It didn't make an actual difference.

Her mind tried to rationalize it. 'It can't be possible.' It said to her, trying to deny the reality in front of her. 'There's no way this can be possible.' It kept on repeating that same mantra, her brain's confidence at what it had determined as a fact falling away every time it repeated the same line. Eventually her brain fell silent and accepted the image in front of her, even as the cold and deadly fangs of fear plunged deep into her bloodstream and raced to her heart, plunging her entire body into a chill so deep that Ruby would later swear that she could feel her bones frost over.

The darkness wasn't the effect of the shattered moon being covered by the clouds from the storm.

It was by the wings of the Grimm who numbered in the thousands. The wingspan of even the largest of Nevermores couldn't hope to begin covering the wide natural expanse of the sky, for no matter how large and how deadly a Nevermore was it was still only one.

This? This… this _mockery_ of common sense where Nevermores, Griffons, and Manticores stood in the thousands and every wing covered a small section of the sky? Where every wingspan eventually added up to the point where the entire world was cast back into shadowy eras where darkness ruled and ran rampant?

A good Huntsman would be able to kill dozens of Beowolves while the teachers at Beacon would be able to easily overwhelm a force of Beowolves numbering in the hundreds, perhaps even thousands. And even so the Grimm ruled over ninety five percent of the planet.

She had never wondered why before. Why was it that even with so many Huntsmen capable of killing so many Grimm, why was it that the Grimm still ruled over the entirety of humanity?

She understood now. She finally understood why.

Even if every Huntsmen and every Huntress in the entirety of Remnant gathered together to fight the Grimm, they would lose against them, _humanity_ would always lose against them.

Because it didn't matter if there were a hundred Huntsmen or a hundred trillion.

For everything, every number able to be conceptualized by the human mind, is essentially equal in comparison to the unlimited. Even if they counted up everything on the planet, it still would not be able to measure up against the _infinite_. All that would be different is how long the finite number would be able to last until it finally ran out, until it finally reached its end.

That's what they were fighting. Humanity was trying to fight against the infinite in vain, trying to desperately hold onto their lives and their way of life against the might of the unending.

Ruby felt a single wet, hot tear slipping past her eyes to trail down her face. She finally understood.

There was no defeating the Grimm. Despair washed over her like a river, and appropriately like the analogy, it started drowning her in anguish. It felt like she was slowly, gradually, sinking into an ocean of endless hate and pain. It covered up her mouth and nose, her ears and eyes, until there was nothing left to feel or breathe except misery. She was trapped in cage with no hope of getting out.

Hope. What a word. It meant that there was a chance of survival, that there was a chance of optimism, of anything good to happen to anyone. Hope, in the wake of the endless abyssal Grimm, was an impossibility.

There was no hope left in this world. Even if the humans built up weapons of war which could devastate the planet, it wouldn't even start to scratch the infinite amount of Grimm that existed in the world. Despair and hallowed dreams were all that was left.

Even the Ursa before her seemed to pity her before it raised up its paw.

It started swinging down, slowly and almost casually. The Nevermore, Griffons, and Manticores seemed to chant in a language which wasn't human, all of them letting out war cries. The cries, they resonated with each other, making each and every cry sound louder than it truly was and multiplying the volume by each of the thousands that existed in the sky.

Ruby could have rolled out of the way. The paw was swinging slowly, far slower than normal. She could easily still escape from the attack, pick up Crescent Rose, and go down fighting and killing as many Grimm as possible. Exactly as a Huntress should do.

Ruby sat there with a bowed head, waiting for the blow to come and end her life.

More, many more, so many more, hot tears slipped down her cheeks from her eyes. Memories flashed by in her mind. Of Zwei, of her father Tai, her mother Summer Rose. Of Team JNPR. Of Nora and Ren and Pyrrha. Of her best and first friend Jaune. Of her team. Blake, and Weiss. Of the family she felt closest to her, her Uncle Qrow and her sister Yang, who was waiting for her to return.

Their times at Beacon also came up. Her first meeting with Jaune, the growth and bond she had with Weiss, the happiness she felt when Blake had finally become a part of the team and not just a bystander after her White Fang secret, of Yang teasing her. Both her and Jaune hanging out and being dorks, the sheer amount of fun she had with Nora, her talking with Ren and his smiles whenever they cropped up, and just joking with Pyrrha.

All of their dreams came up also. Blake's dream to end the divide between Faunus and humans, Weiss's dream to inherit the SDC and rebuilding its reputation, Yang's dream of finding Raven and discovering the reason why she left as a way of accepting. Jaune's dream of becoming a fine and courageous Huntsman, Pyrrha's dream of finally having friends and a proper family, and even though she wasn't sure of Nora's and Ren's she knew that they were just as fine as the rest of them.

There was no fighting spirit gathered, no will to live sparked in her soul. If anything the memories just gathered more despair within her heart. Their lives and their dreams, all of them were nothing in front of the overwhelming strength of the unlimited numbers of Grimm. Useless. Everything was useless.

The Ursa's paw was near her head, ready to swipe it off in an instant.

The darkness of the Grimm seemed to suffocate Ruby, the light nonexistent within this void.

Then a radiant dawn shined through the darkness of the Grimm, shattering it and driving it away as overwhelming amounts of light washed away the shadows. Had the sun somehow come up? No, it was still the middle of the night. Then what...

Soft lips kissed the top of Ruby's head, interrupting her thoughts. Lips that Ruby hadn't felt in… such a long time. "Come now my little Rosette." A soft voice equal to delicate lips she had just been kissed by said. Rosette… she hadn't been called that for so long. Only one person called her that. Only one person had ever called her little Rosette. But that couldn't be. She died long ago. Ruby opened her mouth, never noticing that the Grimm itself had stopped swinging at her in an effort to stare into the dawn.

"Mo-Mommy?" Ruby stuttered.

"Ah, so you do remember me." The warm voice of Summer Rose stated sadly. "It's been so long my little Rosette, I was scared that you wouldn't remember me."

"Always." Ruby muttered quietly before talking a bit louder. "I'll always remember you. I still remember how you once read me that poem. I've read it lots of times, many times after you-" Ruby cut off with a strangled sob. " _The Last Rose in Summer._ " She said quietly, saying the name of the poem.

"Ah," The voice said. "So you remember that do you? But do you remember me tucking you into your bed, reading the stories of knights fighting against dragons? Do you remember me playing with you and being with you? No, I don't think you do. After all, I've never done that. I was always away, slaying the Grimm." She answered her own question before Ruby had a chance to answer. "I'm so so sorry for that my little Rosette. I was so obsessed with being the hero I never realized that by doing so, I pushed my own family away. I was a horrible mother. Let me redeem myself this time though, my little Rosette, by teaching you a lesson."

She turned towards the light of dawn. "Do you see that my little Rosette?" She asked quietly. "That light that signifies the heart of mankind itself."

Only now that she mentioned it, Ruby looked at the light and realized that, no, it wasn't the bright light of dawn. It was a beam of gold, so pure that it seemed to outshine the sun. How she could have mistaken the beam for a sun, she wasn't sure, but inwardly apologized for such an insult against it. The sun wasn't nearly as radiant nor as pure as what was before her. After all, the ball of plasma harmed all that looked at it with naked eyes while the light before her threatened no such thing. Rather, it seemed to invite her to look at it, her gaze trying to capture every detail, restoring strength into her weary bones, restoring her very _soul_ with life. The Grimm that covered all in its shadow had long since been dispersed.

"You've seen the power of the Grimm." Summer stated quietly. "You've seen into the endlessly deep abyss of those monstrosities and like all before you, you gave up. Do not feel ashamed, this is only natural for us as human beings, no, as sentient creatures in total. We see the infinite power of our enemies and despair, thinking that we could never defeat them with our finite power."

She finally turned around to face Ruby while Ruby drank in her mother's face. She hadn't aged a day since Ruby had last seen her a decade ago when she had left and never came back. That, in itself was more telling than everything.

"That is right!" Summer Rose declared while setting her hand right above her heart. "It is only right to falter in the face of the infinite with only the finite, to give up and despair and curse this world for setting us against such an impossible task. This is the right option since it is impossible to defeat the infinite with only the finite!"

"This is where everyone who truly gazes at the infinite power of the Grimm make their mistake. They think correctly that it is impossible to defeat the infinite with only finite power, but we have far more than finite power! Run, Ruby, run to the light of humanity!"

Ruby only nodded before getting up and touching Weiss, who was gazing at the light with an unreadable expression, and Pyrrha, who was starting to wake up, lightly. With a single thought, Ruby turned them both into rose petals before turning herself into rose petals also. They flew towards where the light originated from.

Less than ten seconds later she arrived there, transforming all of them back into their normal state.

They were at Beacon, a far more broken Beacon which had quite a bit more of it set on fire than they were used too, but Beacon all the same.

Her eyes didn't pay any attention to the flames though, they were purely focused on the majestic blade in front of her and the wielder of the blade.

A soft light enveloped the entire field, beating back the flames that seemed to let out a shrill scream whenever it was overtaken by the gleam and extinguished.

"Do you see now Ruby?" Summer Rose appeared next to her, shimmering into existence. "Do you see how the potential of mankind is limitless? Do you see that blade?"

Ruby saw but couldn't comprehend. "What-" Her voice cracked on the word. "What is that sword?"

Summer Rose smiled lightly at her daughter. "Don't be silly Ruby. You already know the name of the sword. After all, every human knows its name just as every demon fears it alongside the name of the Undefeated King."

"I… I know it but," Ruby's voice quivered here before continuing. "But… what is it? There can't be a blade like that."

Summer chuckled to herself and shook her head, unsurprised by Ruby's incomprehension. "That sword, Ruby, is the shine of the torrent of life. It's a holy sword unsurpassed by any blade in existence. A divine construct forged by the planet itself."

She turned around to face Ruby who was looking at the blade in rapturous wonder. Summer laughed, a joyous laugh filled with bliss.

"It is the crystallization of mankind's greatest desire, the manifestation of humanity's _prayer of Glory_. A legend weaved out of the divine silk of hope." She continued. "This blade is not just Glory incarnated though. It is everything etched in the hearts of those who are scattered at the sword's radiance; the nostalgic, sorrowful, and hallowed dream of those who were placed on the bloody hell called a battlefield, of all warriors past, present, and future fully exposed to the fear of death and despair, and who still cling to a desire: _to be exalted._ "

"But most of all," Summer twirled around, looking back at the blade held by the red headed boy. "The blade is the incarnation, the manifestation, the crystallization, of the potential of humanity. It is a blade that will remain long after everything has reverted back to the dust from whence it came, a sign that no matter what happens our promise, our prayers, our light, our defiance, our honor, our ideals, our hearts, but mostly our _dreams_ , will remain long after everything has died out. A symbol that everything that we do is for a purpose and that we will win. That is the blade of King Arthur, a blade that somehow the boy, no, man in front of us wields."

She swept her arm out in front of her passionately. "That sword is a miracle! Our will, hopes, and dreams all lay within that blade. Our very peak of humanity's potential lays in the sword in front of us!"

"But most of all… that sword is-" Summer was interrupted by the Grimm Dragon which let out a furious roar and started flapping towards the red haired man, it's massive and shadowy body acting as a wretched taint against the light the sword released.

"SHINE NOW!" The man shouted towards the blade. "LET THE SPIRIT OF MAN FLOW THROUGH YOU AND END THE ABOMINATION THAT WE FACE!" Responding to his words, the blade somehow shined even brighter than before.

The light seemed like it was visible from all across the entirety of Remnant at the current moment, or at the very least visible from all across Vale. Millions of orbs of light, no bigger than a speck, originated from all across the city. All looked wondrously towards the spheres of gold that seemed to originate from them.

Across Vale, the same spheres of light appeared from every single man, woman, or child. They all collected towards the blade which now was seemingly made of pure light, dancing through the sky like the fae themselves had come to witness the miracle being shown. So numerous they were that they covered the sky, displaying an image of the sky being wreathed in golden light brighter and yet softer than the any of the previous dawns in the world while it was all drawn towards the blade was formed.

It seemed as if the heavens themselves lent their support to the blade, the sky being drawn in by its radiance and being absorbed by the sword which seemed far more ethereal than solid at this point.

As long as even the tiniest amount of good existed within one's soul, they were called towards the blade.

And so, Cinder widened her eyes as a single sphere of golden fire appeared from her heart and joined the blade, far less than the average person but far more than expected. No human was ever pure evil after all, and this blade signified that in its entirety.

"That blade!" Summer screamed herself hoarse. "That blade is the boundless strength of the human spirit which will beat back the infinite power of the Grimm! That blade is humanity incarnated! That blade-" Her voice broke before continuing with a voice the held a thousand times more strength from before.

" _That blade is Mankind's Promised Victory! That blade is-_ "

" _ **Excalibur!**_ " Shouted the red haired man, being heard all over the World. A swingle swish of the blade and the feeling of death, despair, and hatred which overcame the city dissipated, it being hard to believe that the aura was ever there in the first place.

A titanic beam of light emerged from the blade, repainting the shadow laid upon the world in its bright, radiant, golden ideals. Removing the stains of evil from the world, tainting maliciousness with its divine flow. Rather than a simple slash it seemed as if the light flowed from the blade to wipe out the malevolent beings in the world.

The Dragon seemed to somehow _panic_ in the middle of the air, and swerved to try avoid the blast. It was too late though, and Excalibur's ray engulfed the Dragon's left wing and tail.

More notably though, the blast of Excalibur cut and obliterated one more object in its path.

Angra Mainyu screamed as the ray which signified the light of Man tore through and destroyed most of his being, the Grail in front of Shirou _evaporating_ in front of the onslaught of Dreams incarnate.

After witnessing the glorious scene, Ruby turned to her mother who smiled slightly. Ruby had suspected it but the sad smile her mother was displaying at her simply confirmed it, along with her ageless appearance. "You aren't…" She whispered to her mother, the words tinged with despair.

Tears collected in Summer's eyes. They dropped down her face and fell to the ground, only to shimmer and disappear similar to her slowly dissipating body. "No, I'm not real, though I am close. Simply a vision summoned by the sword, an incarnation of your _Dream_ of being a Huntress like I was. A manifestation of your _Hope_ to see me at least one more time, to apologize for taking the life of your mother for granted like every child should, to see if I could explain why I abandoned you and left only to have never come back even when I swore I would return, to just say goodbye one final time."

Summer's form had further dissipated, only showing her waist up and disappearing fast. In just a few seconds, only her neck up remained. "Please… don't apologize for simply being a child Ruby, for taking your loving family for granted when you should. I wanted to be a Huntress, placing that role even before motherhood. Don't repeat my own mistakes please. Don't… don't live a life that only ends in vain. Don't despair for my loss, instead fill the hole I had _stupidly, unforgivably_ , left with your remaining family and your friends. Your team. Maybe even a boyfriend eventually." She tried for a watery smile on her face at this part, but Summer failed spectacularly.

"Don't try to save everybody at the cost of yourself. Don't die with an altruistic bloody smile on your face in the middle of the battlefield. Please Ruby, don't leave your family behind for a world that doesn't care. Don't leave your friends behind. Please don't repeat my mistakes. Please…" Summer's remaining form disappeared, her essence once again scattering onto the ethereal plain. Tears slipped down from Ruby's face as her minature form shuddered in body wracking sobs.

" _Thus kindly, I scatter_

 _Thy leaves o'er the bed"_

Though Summer had once again been forced to leave her family, she had left the remnants of her wishes to her daughter. The torch had been passed down to the daughter of the Silver Eyed Rose Family. However, that wasn't the most drastic event today by far.

The Grail was destroyed. Angra Mainyu had been vanquished. The Fifth Holy Grail War had been completed. And there was nothing left of it...

* * *

He had no mouth, yet he could speak. He had no mind yet he could think. He had no skin but could sense a small shard of his previous cocoon, separated from the rest, try to bundle around him protectively. He had no tongue, yet he could taste the thick iron of blood. He had no nerves yet he could feel endless pain. He had no emotions yet he could feel unending _rage_.

" _Well_ , well, well! What do we have here? A God, spurned and bloodied but yet to be born, along with the same God being one that… _resonates_ with my being and my creations?"

He apparently could hear, though he had no ears. And see though he had no eyes.

Visions processed through a mind that didn't exist yet swirled around within him. Paler than a ghost, yet somehow glowing with a dark light. A dress darker than midnight incarnate, while veins crossed over the body and pulsed with an abyssal fire on skin lighter than snow. But what caught Angra Mainyu's attention was the eyes, glittering like polished and cut jewels and darker crimson than a blood moon and surrounded by an iris that seemed to be made of the same black essence of her veins. They flickered with intelligence and wisdom which could only be gained over thousands of years of experience.

She seemed to stand out from reality itself, such that Angra Mainyu didn't even notice the man with a scorpion tail scuttering around or the large men holding twin shards of crystal near his arms.

The being in front of him though, it seemed delighted. "A God that seems to be similar to the Younger Brother of the two, but somehow seeming even more corrupted and blackened than a God of Darkness. And one that seemingly is in tune with my power, strengthening me just by being near even when contained, no, cocooned would be a far more appropriate word. But how, no, why did one such as you come here? A rift in space and time might have brought you to my castle, but knowing how does not explain why."

The being suddenly jerked its head to the side, towards a seemingly random direction. It stared at somewhere far off before a knowing smile appeared on its face. "Ah, I see. You are but a small fraction, no more than nail clippings, a small shard of the whole gem. I do not know how you got to this realm Outsider God but you were attracted to negativity and hate weren't you? Since Vale is currently under siege and thousands are dying, most of you were pulled there. My old pet is roaring in awe and glory for you right now, shooting its plasma into the blackened sky as a war cry, a flag to gather the Grimm around. I believed him to be sealed under a mountain after one of the Maidens sacrificed herself to defeat him, but he must have awakened from the same negativity which drew you. I could understand you coming to merely spectate, but you are far from such a state where that is possible."

Its crimson orbs turned back to the black and oozing mess that appeared on her table, and its bloody eyes started glowing malevolently, burning brighter than any fire. "When you traveled to this realm, though you could sense the fear and hate running rampant within the civilians a small part of you snuck to here in an effort to preserve yourself. From what I do not know, and even I fear what might have caused a being like you to swallow your pride and flee like a kicked dog."

The being licked its lips slightly, and gave a small smirk. Its crimson eyes renewed glowing with malicious delight, far sharper and far more calculating than before. "Interesting! Tell me, do you wish to be reborn my dear Outsider God?"

Yes… he wanted to be reborn. To drown the world in the sins that had been engraved into him so long ago…

The being smiled knowingly, before her expression faltered and she turned back into the direction she was gazing at previously. She hissed, like a snake recoiling in disgust. " _Glory_!" The being spat out. " _Dreams, Glory, and Hope!_ Of course, the only thing that could make something like you falter would be your antithesis! For while you are _Mankind's blackened soul_ , that is _Mankind's sacrosanct power!_ Dangerous, that's dangerous, nothing bands men together like a spark of hope amidst a sea of despair."

It started glaring at the eldritch object which had appeared on its floor, before faltering. The being broke out into laughter suddenly, startling the large man and causing delightful tears to come to the tailed one.

"Of course, of course! How could I have forgotten? You are merely contained currently, once you awaken not even _Glory_ would be able to harm you." The being developed a cruel smirk. "However until then… you will be another conduit for my own power and research."

A nightmarish beast seemed to morph into existence and then bowed down to the being, who walked on its head before sitting on its back, before collecting the piece of the corrupted holy artifact that was a mere three feet long and only a foot wide within its claws. The beast flapped its wings and flew through the granite castle towards a pit that seemed to distort and emphasize itself from reality.

It flew over the pit and continued past it before circling around and slowly coming to a stop over the pit. The Nevermore dropped the corrupted artifact into the pit while the being smiled.

"Oh, and I believe you should know my name." The being said into the boiling pit of eldritch darkness.

"I go by Salem."

 _ **That isn't your name**_ **…**

The voice seem to emerge from the pit, weak but sure in its conclusion.

Salem curled her lip in disgust.

" _Hey Salestia!" A boy shouted over the courtyard that she sat in, playing in the grass that only grew thousands of years ago. The boy ran over to her even while she sighed._

" _Salestia?" She mocked towards him. "I don't believe you have the honor to call me that quite yet."_

 _The boy did a mock bow. "My apologies Mistress Lemarchy. This humble servant begs for you, in your infinite wisdom and boundless compassion, to forgive this fool."_

 _In spite of herself, the girl giggled and rolled her eyes. She smiled warmly at her best friend. "You wanna play?" The boy's already joyful face stretched into a silly grin._

" _You betcha Salestia!" Then the energetic boy ran towards the trees, insistent on doing a race climb up them… without waiting for her._

 _Salestia sighed, smiling slightly at her friend's energeticness._

" _Damn it Ozpin, wait up!"_

Salem turned around, her back showing to the pit even as memories that took place thousands of years ago ran through her mind, one of the few she remembered.

"Yes… yes it is."

 **Sorry guys, didn't feel like doing an Omake this time. Kind of tired.**

 **Also, God damn! That didn't take that long in terms of writing but it felt sooo long.**

 **Also guys, Holy HELL! Nearly two hundred followers and over a hundred favorites in 2 WEEKS?! All of you guys are god damn insane. Batshit insane. All of you.**

 **I love it.**

 **Hoped you had a good time reading this.**

 **Oh, and before I forget. I based some parts of the Excalibur scene from Fahad09's story, like Summer coming as a vision of Ruby's** _ **Dream**_ **. You should read his crossover, it's an AU called A Demon Lord's Hero. One of my favorite stories.**

 **As always thanks for making my content clean Master4444.**

 **Gotta go now. Night!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Opinions are your state of feelings of a particular topic. They can't actually be wrong and I accept a lot of opinions.**

 **However you can get out if you don't think the true Fate/Stay Night OTP, One True Pairing, isn't Assassin X Gate. I will fight you on this, except where you are using your fists I will bring a goddamn shotgun.**

 **Like a true fucking american.**

 **God, I'm a horrible person.**

 **Also, I'm searching for a Beta. If you want to, then just PM me or review, which I always read, or whatever.**

* * *

Something wasn't right. It was only obvious to him, but obvious all the same.

The sky had flooded with those golden motes of light, as it should have. _Glory_ shone, as it should have.

But the brightness, the pure life it showed, the incomparable strength where even the stars and the moon above dulled in comparison, their soft light unable to graze the blade that dimmed the Sun…

Shirou stared at his projected Excalibur. Yes it took nearly killing himself to project the blade, like nearly everything these days nearly killed him in a one way or another, but it was still far too powerful to be a simple projection.

Projecting a Noble Phantasm took a full _rank_ of power away from what it usually was. To put that into context, the weapon that killed him the first time, Gae Bolg, was usually a B rank Noble Phantasm. If he projected it, the noble spear of Ireland's Child of Light Cu Chulainn would fall to the same rank as Kanshou and Bakuya.

Excalibur, a sword so renowned that the Holy Grail had been forced to give Saber Invisible Air to hide the blade to prevent other Heroic Spirits from identifying it on _sight_ , would be reduced to something that even a B rank Noble Phantasm would be able to compete against it. Hell, even _C ranks_ could have successfully blocked and diverted the blade in the middle of combat a few times before shattering into pieces.

Shirou studied the blade before looking at the dark night sky and the glittering, broken moon and the stars that tried to outshine it. It was rather easy to look at it. After all, there wasn't a cloud in sight. That wasn't because destroying Angra Mainyu and the Grail had cleared up the crimson and deadly storm it made.

That was because he had _accidentally cut the sky_ while using Excalibur. Let him repeat that. He, Shirou Emiya, had accidentally cut, no, _vaporized_ the Root forsaken _sky_ as, not a goal, but a _byproduct_ of using the divine sword. Blowing the clouds away was understandable to him, but having not a single cloud in sight for even his reinforced eyes, which could see for miles? Something like that was only on the level of the original blade, or might have even surpassed it.

That shouldn't have been possible.

Shirou's eyes knit in frustration. To say he was curious would be a rather large understatement but he didn't have enough Prana to even analyze his blade, something that caused so little Prana that Rin could have done it a couple thousand times before even starting to sweat.

But that didn't matter. His bond with King Arthur, with Arturia and her past, and especially her weapon was nearly sacrosanct from the time when she was his Servant, for as short it was, along with the hundreds of times he had faced her in battle near the start of the Grail War. He had memorized every detail about her weapon but he didn't know what could cause such an effect, to cause a projected version of it be comparable to the original.

Excalibur was a God forged weapon, crafted within the World, guarded by the Fae who gave it to Vivan, the lady of the Lake, who later loaned it to King Arthur where it was returned before his death. It was _Glory_ manifested and formed into a single blade. It was _Mankind's wishes_ formed and…

Shirou's stomach dropped into his steel feet at his realization, and his face turned into an aghast expression of shock. It was as if God's divine knowledge had struck him in the form of a thunderbolt, searing his brain cells as it was overwhelmed with a kaleidoscope of fear, and rage.

Like many Noble Phantasms, Excalibur had a side effect. For Gae Bolg, it was that all damage dealt was unable to be healed which was why it required Rin to, not heal, but recreate and replace his heart fully in order to save him that fateful night. For Avalon, the divine sheath of _Everdistant Utopia_ healed extensively whenever the user was or was near King Arthur, to the point where it could even replace organs like the heart even while its true purpose was to allow King Arthur to access and travel to the Land of the Fae.

It was said that Excalibur's power increased exponentially, no, that the blade only showed its true power when an enemy that threatens the entire _planet_ emerges. So if he went by that conclusion, the reason that Excalibur was so powerful now compared to how it was supposed to be meant that…

The planet that he and the Grail had transported to was currently undergoing Armageddon, Ragnarok, the Apocalypse, and any other events that depict the end of the World. Something with the power to wreak havoc on the planet, or destroy it entirely, was present and, unlike Gilgamesh using his Ea, fully intended on razing the World to nothing more than stray ashes blowing in the wind.

And he was pretty sure he knew exactly what that _something_ was.

A black and violent wave that dwarfed buildings started to emerge and churn from the forest in the distance, from the trees, from the sky, from the very ground itself. It rose in endless fury and seemed to swamp the heavens themselves, seemingly wanting to enact an encore of Genesis onto the world, to repeat the World Serpent Jörmungandr's feat of poisoning the oceans and the skies. Shirou's eyes dilated into tiny pricks at the sight. It actually took a couple of seconds for him to realize that, no, it wasn't an inky black wave that originated from Hell itself. It actually was individual masked monsters, which seemed to twist and contort onto themselves, in such great numbers that they blotted out everything beyond them.

They used wings, claws, hooves, paws, anything they had at their disposal to try to get at him. For every beast trampled by its comrades, seven more took its place and roared, their only goal was to destroy the wielder of _Glory_ , no matter how many fell in order to do so. They bayed for the blood of Mankind.

In full health, Shirou could have dealt some damage to the horde with his Noble Phantasms. Maybe he could have even destroyed it fully if he deployed Caladbolg II against them, the broken Phantasm sure to have fully wiped the land clean of these monsters. Unfortunately he was so far away from perfect health that it could only be comparable to the distance in power between his old kitchen knife and Ea. One could cut cucumbers, the other could do the same with _planets_.

A strong scent, the smell of a raging forest fire, flooded his nose suddenly and replaced any other thoughts of self preservation. He flinched and moved his head to the side, his instincts the only warning he had to dodge the speeding arrow that tore a hole into where his head was a second ago. It impacted into the ground ten feet in front of him and exploded, a veritable three foot deep glittering, uneven, reverse glass dome forming from the sand in front of him superheating. The explosion itself was a miniature firestorm, trapped in a single speeding arrow that longed to be free and had snatched up the chance when it was presented. A mix of scents hit Shirou, making his face melancholy at the familiar smell of ash and the feeling of scorching heat. If it hit his head it wouldn't even be funny how dead he would have been, rather instead he was pretty sure he would have turned to ash.

Shirou smirked, a face that was not unfamiliar to whoever had seen the crimson garbed Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War. He should thank the person who shot the arrow later. Whoever they were, they were helpful enough to let him know that his remaining nerves were working from the feeling of heat that had been exuded by the arrow, along with the smell of the Prana. Though whoever they were should try to learn how to manage their Prana better. He could smell that arrow and the Magus that had shot it from a mile away if he wasn't distracted and focused. Even if he was somehow more distracted than he already was, he could have easily dodged it.

Besides, whoever shot that arrow had both a clear vantage point and was a very good shot. A very good shot only meant one thing, that the person in question was accurate with their arrows. Accurate shots were predictable and can be easy to dodge if the one shooting doesn't account for moving and instead depends on the element of surprise. Even easier when the person being shot at only had one showing weak point while the rest was covered in 'armor.' All the person had to do was make sure their weak point wasn't hit and they were secured for life, a similar circumstance that existed for the Norse Hero Sigurd who had an armor that was nearly impenetrable save for a single weakness on his back.

He tilted his head slightly so he could see behind him and upwards. He couldn't see much more than the fact that the person in question was wearing scarlet red. He sneered. Another crimson clothed Archer trying to take his life? The last one was far more threatening and far more capable than the mediocre archer behind him, though he would admit that the broken arrow the individual had shot had a decent amount of power.

He turned back towards the masked monsters that were nearing him, their claws tearing up the ground and their wings slicing apart the air, and prepared himself. He was going to die here- _like he did thousands, millions of times in the act of being Alaya's dog though he never was_ \- but he could at least try to rid this world of a couple hundreds of these apocalypse catalyzing beasts. That way he could at least hel-

It felt like lightning had struck him when he realized what was happening, his expression of disgust and disappointment marring the face it stood upon, which soon twisted into a fractured smile that didn't reach his sunset eyes. Even so, he readied his blade. "It seems…" he said out loud, bitter as if even he was unsure why he was saying it. "It seems that even when I've forsaken that dream, I still can't help but try to save everyone." He really was just as bad as Archer. He might have placed Sakura above everyone else, but he still apparently placed everyone else above himself.

The flood of monsters reached him and Shirou tried to swing, but his good luck streak finally ended. Right before he tried to swing Excalibur, EMIYA apparently tried to assist the murderous, humanity ending beasts before him. _His_ arm finally spread its influence to his right arm fully, transforming his joints into steel. His hand locked up and Excalibur stopped its swing halfway, the monster he was aiming for left free of injury while also being gifted the chance to attack.

One of them leaped towards his face, intent on mauling apart and bathing the ground below in his bright crimson blood.

The second to last thing Shirou heard before he fell unconscious was the sharp cry of " _No!_ "

The second to last thing he saw was the flood of monsters about to kill him suddenly try to screech in pain, not given the chance as silver light bounded past him, enveloping the horde in its angelic light before dissolving them into black sparks.

The last thing he heard was the sharp, grinding noise of metal and steel breaking apart and falling away.

And the last thing he saw was Excalibur glowing a bright gold, even as it was surrounded by the silver light, trying to fight against it. Even Excalibur's immense power was no match, however, and the gold was swallowed up by the silver even as the blade broke apart in his hands into blue motes of light, somewhat akin to glittering stardust.

The last thing Shirou thought before fading into the sweet realms of unconscious was simple yet contradicting the reality that he was faced with. ' _Excalibur… breaking? That's...not...possible…!_ '

After that the fatigue that came from the consecutive large number of impossible deeds that was performed wrapped around him like the loving embrace of a mother: soft with the feeling of guaranteed safety when he was greeted into the lands of the unconscious.

* * *

Ruby didn't know what to do.

The number of Grimm attacking that red haired hero was insane. It was even more than before, but the Grimm attacking her was… well, not patient but less desperate than how the monsters attacking the red haired hero was. For him, they seemed like a man who finally found water after living in Vacuo's desert for a month. They clawed their way to him with eyes bulging out like the mad and sanityless beings that they were, not caring if they killed their own comrades in their effort to reach him.

No, not him, Ruby realized. The Grimm were monsters that constantly try to kill and drive humanity to extinction with an almost ravenous hunger. And so, what was more appealing and necessary to kill than the person who somehow wielded a blade that seemed to be made out of the wishes of Mankind, a manifestation of the hope that tomorrow would be a day worth living for? Nothing was. They weren't going after the red haired hero because he killed a massive amount of them along with whatever was exuding that aura of madness and death. They were going after the sword which he just happens to wield.

She felt like screaming, and only belatedly realized that she was. She wasn't sure how he had that blade but in order for that sword to release that beam of golden light it must have consumed an insane amount of aura, more than anything she'd ever seen before. She doubted that Jaune, any of the Professors at Beacon, or even Headmaster Ozpin would have had enough aura to let loose that feeling of power.

The swarm started to approach the Hero and so Ruby stepped forward, intent on trying to save the same person that saved them from that… that _thing_ releasing the aura of malice and demonic like energy, attracting hundreds to even thousands of more Grimm to Vale and Beacon than what was there previously.

White and red contrasting against the natural hues of the forest stopped her movement though. Pyrrha was still unconscious, her form splayed against the ground and crimson blood slowly soaking the grass beneath her, while Weiss herself seemed to be in between the realms of sweet unconscious and the nightmare which was reality.

Ruby's entire body was shaking, racked by indecision. Did she take Weiss and Pyrrha and flee, using the distraction of the Grimm seeking out the Hero to escape from Beacon and get her friends to a doctor? Or did she dare step forward into the horde of nightmarish beasts, trying to imprint Crescent Rose as a symbol of a Huntress: being a ray of light clashing against the everlasting army of darkness? To try to save all of them, not letting a 'small thing' like certain death deter her from fighting even when the odds were hopeless? A martyr who left to die on the bloody battlefield, leaving those waiting for her to return in misery?

Summer Rose's- mom's- watery smile flashed by in her mind, followed by her last message. _"Don't try to save everybody at the cost of yourself. Don't die with an altruistic bloody smile on your face in the middle of the battlefield. Please Ruby, don't leave your family behind for a world that doesn't care. Don't leave your friends behind. Please don't repeat my mistakes. Please…"_

Ruby bit her lip hard, hard enough to draw out blood. Should she help him and risk her friends dying or should she run, try to find a doctor in Vale and get her friends to safety but leaving the person who saved them all to die? An impossible choice, yet one she had to make.

Suddenly she saw the red haired person flinch and move his head. Why'd he do that, a flinch to try and avoid something behind him when the Grimm were in front?

She soon had her answer in a speeding arrow, so fast that space seemed to ripple and was strained around it, lancing through the space where the hero's head was just a moments ago. It seemed to twist and splinter apart right before impacting the ground, where an explosion larger than anything she had ever seen occurred.

She stared at the now glass pit spreading out before her, a shocked look at the sheer power being flung around nearly casually. Her stomach seemed to be six feet beneath the rest of her body, pooling down in dread.

It was weird. It was like her nerves had frozen up, sending chills throughout her entire body, but at the same time it felt like she herself was on fire. Two contradicting forces, a paradox only able to be formed through the fear she felt. She could feel her body locking up, her brain becoming unresponsive and slow like a hazy fog had settled around it.

No, she couldn't afford such things now. If she did freeze up, everybody would die. _Everybody_ would die!

Slowly, ever so slowly, she felt her mind speeding up and returning to normal, being able to actually think and plan out what she could do. No, it seemed as if the fear previously working against her started to actually assist her in making her brain work far faster and more efficient than it normally would.

If there was a time to escape, right now would be optimal.

It was too fast to properly see, especially with the flames surrounding the weapon, but the projectile was definitely an arrow.

She might have been awkward at social conversations and making friends but Ruby Rose _knew_ weapons. She knew their capabilities, she knew the damage that they could do, and, most importantly, she knew their general shape.

Admittedly, that explosive one was something far outside of what she would have ever expected for a simple arrow, even if it was made out of the highest quality of fire dust ever seen in Remnant, but still.

She turned around to confirm her suspicions and gazed at Pyrrha. Or, to be more specific, she analyzed Pyrrha's major wounds. If Pyrrha was hit with one of those arrows she would have been turned to ash and so she obviously wasn't. However the wounds were deep and spread out.

Almost as if she was hit by an arrow.

Since Pyrrha was fighting Cinder, she could assume that Cinder was the archer that shot that same fire arrow. Did she take it easy on Pyrrha, or was the fire arrow a last ditch effort at killing the red haired hero, Ruby didn't know. All she knew was that Cinder was now solely focused on the massive threat to her plan of destroying Vale, and so it left them an opening that could be exploited. One where she could take her friends, run to the lockers, and flee from the deathtrap known as Beacon.

Ruby shut her eyes and dug her nails into her palms so hard it bypassed her, admittedly, very low aura pool but in the end she gathered her friends together.

She spat out a curse as she gripped all of them together prepared to use her Semblance, for what more than likely would be the last time this week, to turn all of them into roses and rush to the locker.

A single tear slipped down her cheek as she realized that she was willingly leaving someone who just saved them to certain death. Her body was trembling in terror. Ruby was afraid.

She was afraid of the Grimm. She was afraid of the idea of her friends dying. She was afraid of the hero dying. Most of all though, she was terrified at the choice she had to make, at what she was becoming. A person who leaves a few people to certain death to protect someone else.

What would happen if this happened again? If they were protecting a village of some sort but her friends and allies got injured, how many would she abandon to save them? One? Ten? A hundred, a thousand, maybe even more? Or would she give in, and abandon her friends to try and save a couple hundred people she never met and would never meet again? Would she become someone who would kill the few for the many? One that would kill ten people to save a hundred, a hundred for a thousand, a thousand for a million? An emotionless machine that hardened its heart to continue trying to save people?

Despite knowing she shouldn't, that her will would falter if she would, Ruby cast one look back towards the red haired Hero.

The Grimm were upon him, looking nearly as unstoppable as a tsunami. He swung his sword and yet faltered, as if something was forcing him to give up the strike. One of the Grimm lunged for his face and Ruby knew, as well as she knew her own name, that the red haired Hero would die there. As beautiful and as powerful the blade was, a sword about ninety centimeters as it was wouldn't be able to defend its wielder at extremely close ranges like a dagger would be able to. Now that the Grimm was within the Hero's guard, he wouldn't be able to defend effectively or even defend at all. He was at the mercy of a being that had none.

Time seemed to slow down to an absolute crawl to her.

She could feel her hands move, even as she knew they moved far too slow to prevent him from being killed. She could see every gear shifting as Crescent Rose deployed itself all too slowly. She could feel her Semblance acting up and responding to her desperate call _all too slowly_.

Everything was _far too slow_.

Nothing she could do would help! All that she could do was stand there in shock as the Grimm closed in, about to kill him, about to _kill him!_

And that wasn't the extent of everything. Her throat itched. Her ears were sore from hearing that irritating ringing noise that seemed to last for hours yet was only for a second.

It took her longer than she thought it would to realize what the noise was, why her throat was burning. Why everything around her glowed a wavy silver, as if it was the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake.

She was screaming.

" _NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

The vortex of negative emotions within Ruby exploded outwards onto the world, shock, fear, horror, pain, and rage giving way to light.

Silver light exploded from Ruby and swamped the surrounding area in fury, like a river that finally broke through the dam that held its massive power back. The Grimm seemed to evaporate from a light touch of the silver glow while the few remaining hastily retreated in panic, what was once a horde of demons numbering in the hundreds cut down to a mere dozen.

Ruby herself was collapsing to the ground, her legs far too drained to support her. All of the exhaustion from escaping the Grimm, battling them, her injuries, and constant abuse of her Semblance was far too much for her body to handle. Even if it was not, whatever she had done to make everything white had not only added to her exhaustion but multiplied itself exponentially. Greater men would have fell before such exhaustion and her body seemed to agree with them as the ground rose up to meet her. Black spots danced across her vision as darkness invited her into the realms of the unconsciousness.

 _Whirrrr clank!_

Crescent Rose's war scythe form burrowed itself into the ground as Ruby plunged it into the soil and used it as a pole to desperately keep herself propped up on.

'Not now.' She told herself. 'Not… yet.' All of them were still in massive amounts of danger. The perfect opportunity to escape from Beacon has been missed, since due to that silver show Cinder would no doubt focus on them. If she launched another one of those fire arrows… not even their ashes would remain. Nor the forest protecting them from sight currently.

Even with the massive horde of Grimm being destroyed, _somehow_ , the Dragon could still summon another wave. She wasn't sure how finite the amount of Grimm were in the world, but if there were only a couple thousand of them humanity would have destroyed them all long before, especially with Atlas technology.

Speaking of the Dragon, the winged abomination in the sky somehow was able to retreat far enough to not be affected whatever the hell she just did. It was eyeing her warily, its crimson eyes shining with a cold intellect that would have made her shiver if she had enough energy too. Instead she settled for smiling wearily.

"Of course whatever I did didn't affect the Dragon. It would be too easy that way wouldn't it?" She whispered to herself in a strained manner.

As if hearing her, the Dragon relaxed its furiously beating wing and slammed into the ground, causing the earth to ripple around it and massive cobblestones jut out from the pathway to Beacon's entrance.

In the distance one of the buildings started to tip over, the pure force emitted by the Dragon landing proving too much for the expertly built architecture to withstand. A building whose entire purpose was to provide a _beacon_ of hope for all those who gazed upon it, one which was never supposed to fall.

For the Dragon to cause so much damage just by _landing_ …

Ruby gulped in fear. What kind of monster were they facing?! And now that she noticed it, how was the beast even supporting itself in the air with its _lone, non-incinerated_ wing?! It must weigh over a ton, but it's able to at least hover in the air with the pure air force each wingbeat it was producing?! That's insane! This one Grimm… it probably could have soloed the entire army of Grimm pouring into Vale.

They couldn't have faced this monster even at their full might. The wing and tail not being there proved it could be injured, but it only received that damage from that blast the red haired person unleashed. And considering he was laying unconscious a bit away from where the Dragon touched down she doubted that he could unleash another one, even if the Dragon was kind enough to sit there and wait for him to charge up enough aura to repeat it.

No, they definitely couldn't have beaten it at full strength. And since the guy was exhausted, along with Ruby herself, Pyrrha was unconscious, Weiss was unconscious, along with no reinforcements it looked like their chances for surviving this dipped from zero into the negatives.

The Dragon still looked wary about her repeating the super blast she did and about the red haired guy getting up so that was a plus in their favor at least.

Then it opened its mouth while its eyes started glowing a whirlpool of crimson red with flecks of bright blue. Ruby could barely see into its mouth but she had a hunch of what was happening. A hunch proven to later be correct.

She wished she remained ignorant when she realized that it was starting to glow.

"Oh come on!" She complained tiredly. "It breathes fire as well as summoning Grimm?!"

The Dragon's throat lit up a brilliant orange as the night let up in the pure power of _fire_. No that wasn't quite right. This was no mere fire. It was more of a contained and more potent version of plasma, something more akin to a lightning bolt than something as little as fire.

Her skin was scorched and every last drop of moisture that was still on her evaporated.

And then all she saw was blood red.

"How's it going squirt? Drinking milk every day like I told you to? You'll only grow big and strong then you know."

A comforting red. The color that was the same as her own cape.

The same color as her Uncle's cape.

She let out a small hysterical laugh before sinking into his familiar grasp, a safe haven that let her remain ignorant of the pain of reality.

"Are you drunk again Uncle Qrow?" She asked, even while she soaked his clothes in tears of relief. After all, him being drunk would be a damn good reason to be willing to face down a Dragon. If supported by enough liquor, he was probably seeing the thing as an oversized bat Grimm than a Dragon.

"How many times do I have to tell you Ruby?" He said in an exasperated tone even as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her hair, as if they were comforting each other with their presence. "I'm not as _think_ as you _drunk_ I am." He said, purposely misplacing and slurring the words.

Ruby tried, she tried so hard, but she couldn't resist and giggles started pouring out of her. Of course. Only her uncle could disregard the massive threat right in front of them to try and cheer her up even slightly.

Speaking of the massive threat, what happened to the breath attack coming their way?

She tilted her head ever so slightly upwards to try and see the Dragon. Said beast was flung back over a dozen meters and trying to cover its face and body from a barrage of missiles firing from an aircraft. The missiles, which she knew for a _fact_ could easily annihilate Grimm due to the amount of fire dust crammed in there, seemed to be more annoying the beast than actually hurting it. It was similar to how an adult would react when hit with the fists of a child. Stinging a bit, yes. Actually hurting? Not quite.

Ruby paled when she turned her head ever so slightly more to gaze at the deep scar of glass covering nearly a hundred meters of ground.

There used to be stone and forestry before that attack hit, only missing them due to the extremely well timed intervention of the aircraft. Even then the attack only missed by the length of a meter at most. If that attack had hit then not even the remains of their ashes would have been left behind, much less any intact body part.

"Now Ruby," Her Uncle Qrow's voice hardened like cooling metal, one about to be made into a fine sword. It sounded just as deadly too. "Can you get up?"

Rather than waste her energy speaking, Ruby used Crescent Rose as a balance to pull herself up, only slightly staggering in the action. Qrow looked worriedly upon her, though his guard never dropped against the Grimm.

"I'm good Uncle Qrow. Even regained a bit of aura." Ruby declared determinedly. "But that Grimm is strong. Too strong. We can't beat it. It can breathe fire _and_ summon Grimm."

"I know." Qrow said. "This thing had a literal _mountain_ on it and shrugged it off like Ice Queen with compassion. Killing it is going to be next to impossible. We're going to have to be extremely lucky to even deal damage to it." Qrow grinned as he said the last part. After all, what was luckier than the opponent trying to kill you having massive turns of bad luck?

Ruby, seeing Qrow's grin, decided not to ask. She would trust her uncle with this, even after the ominous things he said.

"Also Blond one should be coming to you soon. He'll get you patched up, and then you have to leave. You can't help with something like this, and with your teammates unconscious and you exhausted you'll be more of a liability than anything." Though the words said were blunt, Qrow's words still cut deeply into Ruby. It was also completely true, however. They wouldn't be much help like this.

Apparently the Dragon was fed up with trying to block the missiles from the Bullhead, and turned its head towards it, ignoring the explosions peppering its skin. The same crimson glow radiated from its eye, though with not as much intensity as before.

The Bullhead hastily tried to pull back, succeeding somewhat, but not fast enough to avoid the Dragon. The beast leapt into the air and, without delay, spat out five enormous fireballs at the aircraft. No, not fireballs, but rather tightly compacted plasma more akin to miniature suns than actual fire.

The Bullhead managed to avoid three of the small suns, but the fourth one managed to clip one of the wings. Ruby watched with horror as the aircraft lost all semblance of control and spiraled into the fifth fireball, exploding as the steel evaporated once melting into the heat of the fireball.

"Psh. 4 out of 10." Qrow muttered. "As if anyone actually thought you idiots were actually dead."

"Hey I resent that." Complained a familiar voice. "The auto-flying for the Beacon aircrafts is insane good. It nearly looked like there was an actual pilot in there! Eight out of ten at the very least!"

Ruby whipped her head around in confusion and she saw yellow and blue standing in what remained of the forest. "Jaune!" She piped up ecstatically. "Sun! Neptune!"

"Ruby!" Jaune yelled as he slid down the slope and caught her arm tightly. "Ruby, are you okay? Where's Pyrrha?!"

"Um, Pyrrha is-" saying this Ruby's eyes widened in horror. "Pyrrha!" Her tiny body somehow regained the energy to run to Pyrrha's and Weiss's bodies flung a couple meters away from the Dragon's blast. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." She stammered.

"Out of the way!" Sun ran ahead of Ruby while Jaune and Neptune weren't far behind him. He knelt by Pyrrha and Weiss, his eyes dancing over and analyzing every wound on the two. "Weiss is good, but Pyrrha… what the fuck? Arrow wounds?!"

"Pyrrha was heading up to the top of Beacon to fight some person who used arrows." Jaune remembered. "She used that to kill another person."

"Yeah." Ruby confirmed. "It's not a normal arrow either. Look at the jagged part of the wound. It was an arrow whose entire purpose was to deal a lot more damage when ripped out."

Sun scowled. "Dammit, I don't have the equipment for this. I can prevent her from bleeding out too much but with how much is already gone, she's going to need a blood transfusion. We don't even have that equipment at the shelter, so we need to take her to a hospital. And the Dragon shot our fucking Bullhead out of the sky! We don't have anything to allow us to get to the damn hospitals!"

"What about the Beacon medical center?" Asked Neptune. "That should have enough materials to help her right?"

Sun bit his lips. "It's not an ideal environment due to the attack and non-sterile environment, but this entire situation isn't exactly stellar in the first place. It should be good. We need something to carry her, the running would just jostle her even more and make the wounds worse."

"Can we use those vines?" Asked Jaune, pointing out the vines hanging on the trees. "I've seen them used like this on TV."

Sun nodded. "It's not that good but we can use those to form a small hammock. But that'll take time, even with the three of us so… Neptune! Use parts of your clothing to form a tourniquet! Jaune, help him for all the wounds and make sure to apply constant pressure! Huntsman, keep the Grimm of us anyway you can! I'll get the hammock made in twenty seconds!"

All of them rushed to follow his orders. Jaune and Neptune started ripping off parts of their clothing while Qrow started rushing the Dragon Grimm, his scythe out in its full glory.

"Can I help you with the hammock?" Asked Ruby. "You said it'll take time but we need every second we can get."

"Nah." Sun clapped his hands together, as if he was praying. "I got this."

Sun's soul hummed with life and energy as a dozen light clones formed into existence. They would be useless for fighting due to Sun not putting that much aura into them but for simply fixing something they would be worth more than an entire crew of people. After all, though they had different bodies all of their minds and actions were linked to his, forming something akin to a hive mind.

The clones worked together seamlessly, not a single wasted movement existing within their teamwork. After only forty seconds the vine hammock was made, not one that would last long but something that would help them for now at least.

Sun clicked his tongue. Forty seconds? He'd gotten rusty.

"Done!" Neptune called out to Sun. Pyrrha's body was wrapped in multiple tourniquets, and Jaune pressing down on the major wounds while whispering reassurances to Pyrrha's unconscious body.

"Same here." Sun nodded to him. "Put her on it gently. We've got to rush. Remember to reinforce the vines with your aura."

"Of course." Neptune affirmed.

Aura was a useful and rather versatile ability. As well as being able to be used as a defensive force field, aura could also be used for attacking if one's aura control was high enough. If Sun remembered right, Ren was supposed to be absolutely broken in his mastery of aura and could use it generate even shockwaves with a simple punch through aura, not with pure force like Yang.

In addition to being able to be used defensively and offensively, aura could also be used supplementarily to reinforce objects. Though it was difficult, every huntsman and huntress need to be able to use it instinctually by the time they even got into highschool. Only idiots didn't bother to rely on the rather useful ability.

For fuck's sakes, Blake shattered a _watermelon_ with a piece of _bread_ and sent Nora flying from a whip attack using _sausage_. If that wasn't useful, Sun didn't know what was.

He snapped back to attention as Jaune and Neptune placed Pyrrha on the hammock, Ruby assisting them with carrying it. Alright, that was good. Now all they had to do was avoid the Grimm and rush to Beacon and they should be able to help Pyr-?!

Sun dove out of the way. He didn't know what was coming, he didn't know why it lighted every single alarm bell in his body, he didn't know why his instincts screamed to run and not look back if he wanted to survive, but he didn't care either. He just knew that if he wanted to live, he had to dodge.

He wasn't sure why he was the only one to notice the frankly _absurd_ amount of power coming his way either. Maybe it was because he was a faunus? Animals were able to sense natural disasters coming before humans simply due to the instincts they possess. A simple feeling is what allowed them to escape before disaster struck and killed them.

And as much as Blake denied it, in the end the Faunus were part animal. Nothing like some non-sentient beings or a beast who feasted on blood, but the Faunus were simply humans far more in touch with their animal side. Sun could smell _more_ than what people could. Every touch was _more_ , he could see _more_ , hear _more_. Every single sense was cranked up to eleven and beyond.

He didn't know. He didn't really care either, as long as he could avoid what was certain to be a killing blow.

 _Something_ shot between the trees, a projectile speeding between Jaune and Neptune, who were on the sides of the hammock, and sped straight to Ruby.

Ruby's eyes widened just a tad at the projectile about to spear through her, not given enough time for anything else.

It plunged into her right eye and speared through her, vanishing somewhere into the distance.

Sun roared in grief and horror. He knew a killing blow when he saw one and that one eviscerated the entirety of Ruby's head, along with some of her body. There wasn't anything that could survive that.

He stared with tears in his eyes as the blood from her head slowly drifted down, even as Neptune and Jaune realized what happened and turned to Ruby's still standing corpse with shock.

Wait. Blood drifting down? Still standing corpse?

Sun blinked tears out of his eyes to see what actually happened, even as the remnants of Ruby's head filled out the night sky.

Roses. Roses were everywhere, as bright red as blood.

Sun stared in shock as the roses regathered, clumping together like some five year old tried to mash them together. It formed into a silhouette of a head until the red faded from the roses, crimson petals turning into pale skin and black hair.

"Ruby…?" Asked Jaune tentatively, his voice sounding as scared and shocked as Sun felt. Probably even more since Jaune was a closer friend of Ruby than Sun was, even if he liked the short girl.

Ruby didn't answer him, standing still as if she was a statue. Slowly, ever so slowly, Ruby brought a hand up to her right eye and patted it, as if she was unsure that her eye was still there. She patted it a few times to reassure that, yes, her head was still attached to her body and not speared into a tree somewhere.

"Tch. So your Semblance grants you a limited amount of intangibility by transforming you into roses? How annoying." A silky smooth yet condescending voice rang out, making Ruby feel like she was suffocating.

Cinder walked out of the trees slowly, as if she had nothing to fear from the group of teenagers on the ground. To be fair, if everything Ruby had heard about her was true, she probably didn't.

The second thing Ruby noticed about Cinder was her clothes. A beautiful dark red dress showing off every curve of hers, with embroidered gold designs lighting up as if molten lava flowed through it.

That part didn't matter that much to Ruby, she was never one for paying attention to clothing, but what did matter to her was the state of the clothing Cinder was wearing. Specifically, it's nearly untouched state.

Ruby paled in fright when she realized what that meant. Cinder was able to kill Ozpin _and_ nearly kill Pyrrha without taking any damage to her _clothes_ , much less any scratch or any sign of bruising?! That was… not possible.

Jaune, Sun, and Neptune apparently agreed if the half strangled whimper half shout ripping out of their throats was any sign of consension. Then again, maybe that was in reaction to what Ruby noticed first about Cinder. It was understandable.

After all, it wasn't usual nor comforting to see an eldritch glow emanating from the eyes of any person, let alone their enemy.

Neptune broke the eerie silence hovering around the battleground in a shaky tone. "You have _got_ to be shitting me."

Ruby couldn't help but agree. A woman who was able to kill some of the strongest huntsmen in front of them and a Dragon to their back with their injured teammates surrounding them? She felt as if the day couldn't even get any more dangerous.

Oh well. Nowhere to go but up right? Or at least to a point where everything didn't seem so screwed up?

She wasn't even surprised when a thunderbolt ripped out of the _clear skies_ to strike the Dragon and twisters started descending from the Heavens to surround it, nor when nearly two dozen Nevermores spawned out of nowhere and somehow broke apart the tornado swirling around the Dragon.

She shouldn't have tempted Fate.

* * *

"Agh! Watch the feathers asshole!"

The fight with the Dragon wasn't exactly going stellar, as proved by the, what, thirtieth time Qrow nearly got roasted by the fire breath? Something around that.

"Holy fu-!"

Thirty first.

As easy as it was to die in this form, Qrow had to love the sheer maneuverability of flying. It let him live far past what he should have in this fight, able to dodge every fireball.

Though strangely the fireballs started changing colors in the middle of the battle, and started coming far more frequently. At first it was the large attacks. Powerful and big, yes. But also slow and easy to avoid. Then later it started becoming more condensed, but far faster. He actually had to be extremely careful when dodging those.

Though it was strange, the Unlucky Reaper put it to the back of his mind. All the meant was that he had to be more cautious of the Grimm's mouth during the fight.

Qrow transformed back into his normal form, Harbinger deployed and lusting for blood, as he tried to drive the scythe into the Dragon. His eyes widened as the scythe barely managed to draw blood, leaving a large but mostly cosmetic scar, and hastily transformed back into his crow form to escape the attack from the Dragon's wing.

He had been lucky enough to dodge the attacks, even if it was from the Dragon being _unlucky_ than any luck of his, but he knew that he couldn't keep it up. His Semblance tipped the scales of probability to his side, but sooner or later he would get hit, and with the strength of the Grimm, he couldn't be confident that he wouldn't become a bloody stain on the floor, Aura or not.

A few fireballs launched, them being dodged, him leaving a small scratch, and him barely dodging another attack. A never ending song and dance of near death and little damage dealt. Qrow might be damn good at his job, but even he couldn't kill this thing on his own.

So he didn't try to kill it. Instead he tried to the next best thing.

Qrow swerved and ducked under the miniature suns coming his way and flew upward, as if he was trying to aim towards the Dragon's eyes now. As with the last couple times he actually tried to destroy the eyes, the Dragon's eyelids shut with a skin too hard for Harbinger to pierce. Rather than try to futilely hurt the eyes once again, Qrow transformed back to normal and fell from the sky, using gravity to help him gain the necessary speed of what he wanted to do.

He twirled his scythe and cut deep into the back of the Dragon's achilles tendon, the acceleration of his fall helping him deal far more damage than he would usually. Even then though, it cut deeper than it should have in comparison to the rest of the beast's armor like skin.

Unless… the skin's durability is less at the areas of joints and ligaments.

Qrow grinned as he landed. He had found the beast's weak points, and it was only a matter of time before he managed to deal enough damage to the Grimm's tendon to completely disable its ability to even stand. After that, the only way it could move would be to use its lone wing which wouldn't be able to take it far. He just would have to call in some heavy duty artillery from Jimmy, from the way the man was Qrow suspected that he had at least three warehouses full of dust and other explosives as back up, and then they would be able to kill the creature. All he had to do was focus on the hit and run tactics and he _should_ be in the clear.

Qrow would later agree that he deserved everything that happened then for even _thinking_ such a thought.

At that point of time though, Qrow only swore profusely at the world when a random boarbatusk barreled into his back and launched him across the field.

Groaning at the pain in the back, even if his aura blocked all actual damage, Qrow stared confused. He knew that the Dragon could summon more Grimm, but from what he saw and heard it could only drop some portal to summon them from the wings. He had been paying attention towards the Grimm's head quite a bit, for the streams of fire and plasma being shot out, but he would have noticed if a portal of darkness had been dropped down from the beast. So where did the damn extra Grimm come from?

Qrow noticed the amount of Grimm swell around the Dragon's feet, almost as if they were… being…

No, there's no way.

Qrow shifted into his bird form and took to the skies, using his enhanced vision to see what was happening near the Dragon's foot. After confirming it, Qrow transformed back into his human state to casually chop off the head of an Ursa trying to creep up on him.

"This is _bullshit!_ First summoning some Grimm with portals of darkness along with massive amounts of strength and flight. Alright, sure, I could beat that. Then fucking _plasma_ _breath attacks_?! Yeah sure, alright, that's difficult as all hell but maybe. Then some skin harder than one of Jimmy's damn Paladins?! Sure, why the hell not?! But seriously, it's summoning Grimm to support it through it's _blood_?! Everytime I hurt the damn thing, I only have more enemies to deal with?! This! Is! _Bullshit!_ Where is it even getting this fucking from?! It's whipping out more powers than women Tai gets lusting after him!" Qrow yelled out in frustration, stamping his foot like a tantrum throwing toddler.

He had to take a couple of deep breaths to get back to the point where he could keep his calm and analyze the situation. "Alright, so this thing has more powers than it's shown previously. Why? Is it that it's trying to keep his powers hidden to use it only when necessary? If that's true, then this thing not only has a crazy amount of intellect for a Grimm but a lack of arrogance to go along with it. No, there's no way that's true. This thing is nearly as strong as a Maiden, there is absolutely no way that it wouldn't be even a bit cocky. Is it because I'm actually able to do damage to it? No, the damage I've dealt is cosmetic as best and I doubt it actually figured out my plan to cripple its movement. Is it because whatever the hell that light beam was actually able to a damn lot of damage to it? No, it would have used its full power right after that, not just pulling out one gambit after another, especially as clunky as it's been... using..."

Qrow paused for a second and paled. "No, there's no way. But if it is… but it would go against nature as a whole, and there is no way Salem would implement such an ability. She's too cautious, she'd be too afraid of an outcome like that, too afraid that the thing would fly out of control… but that means-?!"

It was impossible. But so was the idea of Gods, Relics gifted by deities with powers beyond comprehension, a Queen of the Grimm, an undying man constantly reincarnating in an effort to fight against said Queen of Grimm, the Maidens… impossible was a word used by those too weak to comprehend that _anything_ was possible.

"Shit!" Screw the movement disabling plan. If he was right, he had to end this now. Before Vale became an uninhabitable waste land. No, before Humanity as a whole became extinct.

He forced his Semblance to work at a far higher capability that it ever did before, his aura suffering for it. No matter. He needed probability and reality itself to work with him to prevent that Dragon from doing anything else. And hope beyond hope that the reinforcements he called before coming here would come soon.

Qrow charged into the army of Grimm starting to rush him, intent on killing the Dragon, paying no attention to the cannon fodder amongst him.

A Beowolf was the first to completely close the distance between it and Qrow.

The Dragon roared and stepped closer to him as if it was mimicking a war cry.

Multiple stones jutted out in the pathway of the Beowolf due to the pure power in the Dragon's single step. The Beowolf tripped across the stone, not anticipating the pavement to lift up. It tried to stabilize its footing but the multiple pebbles which just happened to be under it proved to be too slippery and the Grimm fell.

To be specific it fell onto Qrow's scythe, the beast's own weight severing it into two against the insanely sharp weapon.

Qrow ran forward, not even bothering to pay a single glance to the Grimm that essentially killed itself on his scythe due to pure bad luck.

The process repeated more than a dozen different times with only slight variations. Grimm leaping at him happened to collide with a neighbor doing the same thing, forcing them fall on either side of him and letting him pass. An Ursa swinging at him killed more than a dozen Grimm due to improperly aiming since its vision was covered by the feathers of a Nevermore, who was unable to attack since a Boarbatusk got one of the Nevermore's claw stuck between the two horns jutting out of its skull which then lead to _etcetera etcetera_.

What happened in the middle was different in each encounter Qrow had. However the ending was always the same.

Without even attacking once Qrow ran unharmed through the entire army of Grimm, which seemed to open before him as if he was Moses before the Red Sea.

The Dragon itself was watching in whiplashed confusion at its army falling apart before Qrow without even hitting him. The beast's blood still sprayed out of the wound, causing a number of Grimm to rise and charge Qrow but always falling before him.

Sick of this insult, the Dragon's eyes started to glow the same dark red as an ocean of fire came bursting through its mouth. Dozens of Grimm were killed in the crossfire but Qrow himself had already transformed into his bird form and let the heavens assist him as he soared away from the blast.

The fire waved over and incinerated the wrong targets even as the beast tried to correct its aim and target the crow overhead.

Qrow grit his teeth as he transformed back into his human form and lifted Harbinger above him. He could feel his limit rapidly approaching. His Semblance was to constantly force bad luck upon those near him, but that was it. Probability played massively in his favor by making his opponents always get that one out of a thousand chance of missing and allowing him to open a killing blow but... _that was it._

He just ran through a literal _army_ of Grimm in order to get here as fast as possible. A baby would have more of a chance of surviving an Ursa than he had of doing that without taking a single hit. His Semblance had forced that one out of a quadrillion chance of actually happening to actually occur, causing his aura to be rapidly drained from having to support his Semblance's influence on reality.

'Come on! Come on, don't fail me now!' Qrow grit his teeth as the dive that he was in along with gravity forced him to approach the beast beneath him even faster. The Dragon widened its eye before starting to reflexively close it in preparation for the hit.

'Come on! Come on! Come on damn it!' Even as Qrow repeated the words inside his head like a prayer, he knew it in his heart what would happen. He would miss his chance, because he _wasn't fast enough._

It was always like this. He would never be fast enough. He wasn't quick enough to stop Raven from running away from the team and her married life. He wasn't fast enough to prevent Summer from being killed. He wasn't fast enough to stop Yang from getting her arm cut off. He wasn't fast enough to prevent the attack on Amber, leading to this whole mess in the first place.

 _He wasn't fast enough. He was_ _ **never**_ _fast enough!_

The weak point was vanishing, and vanishing fast. Barely anything of that dark red remained.

 _He had to be faster. Faster, faster, faster,_ _ **faster!**_

Qrow roared out in desperation, praying for him to make it in time, for a miracle to happen, for his Semblance to act in his favor just one last time even as the red sparks came flying off his body, tell tale of his aura being next to nothing.

Images of Ruby, Yang, Tai, Raven, and Summer flashed by in his mind.

Ruby always hugging his leg and pleading for him to not go out, to play with her for a bit more. Her dazzling smile as he gave in and left to his mission for Ozpin late to play with her, as he always did for that smile.

Yang pumping out her fist, her wild grin always present even in the darkest of circumstances. Qrow felt the chill of a thousand winters pumping through his veins as the haunting image of her pale and unconscious body laying on the bed, only one arm showing, flashed across his mind.

Tai with one arm slung around him, wrestling him on the mattress of the Beacon dorms as Summer cheered out in support for both of them while Raven just laughed and cracked open a beer.

Raven herself always teasing him and annoying him, laughing as she beat him in a drinking contest, kicking his ass in a spar, and just all around having fun. She always had a smile on her face back then. He remembered that he did too.

And Summer… oh, Summer. He remembered strutting into Beacon, looking down on everyone as he thought they were weak and couldn't beat him. He remembered arguing against Summer, snarking to her that she was useless and would never match up to him. He also remembered getting his ass thoroughly beaten in the spar following that statement, her words about _friendship_ and _compassion_ and _teamwork_ and everything else that never existed in the Branwen tribe finally getting through to him.

No wonder he fell in love with her, even if she never seemed to notice it.

And he remembered Summer dying. But more than that, he could remember what happened afterwards.

He remembered Tai always being either drunk or passed out, falling back on alcohol as a coping mechanism in order for him to deal with life.

He remembered Yang shedding silent tears and being forced to grow up far quicker than what she should have.

He remembered Ruby pulling at his clothes, asking him why there was a stone with her mother's name on it, and why he was crying, _and when Mom was going to come back since she promised that she would make me some cookies and play with me and_ -

And he remembered his oath. That they would never cry again, that he'd help Ozpin in any way he could so that the same Grimm that killed Summer would all die. So that they'd all live happily ever after.

And so he wouldn't die here.

Not because he wanted to live.

But because _they would be sad_.

He forced every bit of his aura into trying to force his Semblance to try and make some random probability lean in his favour. A final gambit.

He'd sell his soul if it'd prevent anything bad from ever happening to them ever again.

His body roared in pain.

He could feel something shatter within him. Whether it was bone, or something else, he wasn't sure but he didn't care either.

He prayed for a miracle.

And a miracle occurred.

Harbinger, the weapon which he was even more fanatic about taking care of than Ruby for Crescent Rose, malfunctioned.

A single shot fired out of the scythe, the scythe whose magazine of fire dust _was emptied already._ The only thing that shot out was some air.

That didn't matter though.

What _mattered_ was that the recoil of the shot forced him to fly even faster downwards.

 _He was finally fast enough._

Qrow let out a war cry that seemed to shake the ground of Remnant itself as he plunged Harbinger into the Dragon's eye with a sickening squelch.

The roar of pain the Dragon let loose was heard all over Vale, extending for kilometers.

As he was right next to the source of that scream, Qrow could feel his ears bleeding, his eardrums bursting, and his brain rattling around his skull.

He didn't care. Something as small as that wouldn't be able to stop him.

"DIEEE!" screamed out Qrow as he ripped through the eye's soft tissue in an effort to reach the brain. If he could just tear that, he would be able to kill it. It was his only chance. His Aura was spent on strengthening his Semblance, and he had no other tools at his disposal.

The Dragon was stumbling around, unable to see and the cut achilles tendon finally destroying the Grimm's stability. The blood streaming from its eye was dripping onto the ground and summoning more Grimm, even as the summoner itself killed the them in its pain filled rampage.

Pain filled, Qrow realized in panic, but not brainless. How the Dragon managed to even somewhat think when a giant scythe was impaled in its eye was beyond Qrow, but it did think and think well at that. Qrow tried to move, but it was too late.

The Dragon smashed head first into Beacon academy, plowing through stone and steel. It's massive and extremely durable body could take the damage easily, most likely only manifesting as stinging pain akin stubbing your toe. Painful but far from deadly.

Qrow's soft and fleshy and extremely _human_ body couldn't take the damage as well unfortunately. He spat out blood as large rocks struck his body. Yet he still made sure to not break in front of the assault, digging Harbinger ever deeper into the Dragon.

The Dragon became more frantic than ever, its rampart steps shattering the ground like glass while the head continue destroy the architectural novel of Beacon as it tried to remove Qrow.

Qrow shouted his defiance out to the world, his iron will refusing to bend under an attack a lesser man would have died a hundred times over to. At this point, Qrow had more blood than actual skin on his body. Ribs, shoulder blades, arms, legs, the bones was shattered under the endless attack of the Dragon.

Eventually it was his blood that did the trick. The slippery substance started causing him to slip from Harbinger's hilt. Qrow's eyes widened as he redoubled his efforts to keep his grip on the scythe, but it was useless.

Qrow slipped off of the hilt of Harbinger, flying upwards and slamming onto whatever was intact of that level's ceiling. He then broke _through_ that level's ceiling, impacting the next level's ceiling before finally slamming down onto the ground. Thankfully when slipping from Harbinger, he had been launched at a somewhat diagonal angle so he didn't fall through the hole he had just made in the ceiling… or floor now since he broke through to next level.

Qrow couldn't move at all. He wasn't sure if he broke his spine from the impact. God, he hoped he didn't. He didn't want to spend his life as a paraplegic. He wouldn't be able to kill Salem that way, wouldn't be able to protect _them_.

The agonizing pain sending shocks throughout his body didn't matter. The way his arm was bent in a different way than normal didn't matter. The way how his right hand was completely mangled and wasn't responding didn't matter.

Qrow twitched his left hand. Good, his left hand was working slightly. Proof enough that he wasn't paralyzed from the neck down at least.

He tried to pick himself up using his left hand. He managed to slightly pick himself up but collapsed midway, his crimson life fluid soaking his white shirt a dark scarlet. He had to get up, he had… to… protect them…

And then all Qrow saw was red.

Was that his blood? Ugh, he couldn't see straight. He swore, he could actually could see his blood swirling.

Damn, he must be seeing things. Hell, if he looked it at the right angle it actually looked… like…

" _Everyone gets one."_ He had forgotten that. What stupidity.

Qrow started laughing, even as that caused his blood to flow out even faster. "Fucking hell, really? What an entrance." He said.

"Why Qrow, you look like more of a mess than the first time you drank some alcohol. I never thought I would see the day."

Though she said it casually, he could see her tense up. It was understandable. After all, he was about as strong as her. If they faced each other it would be a coin flip to who would win.

"Listen. The Dragon, it's not _right_. It shouldn't be able to _exist_." Qrow managed to say.

"Wait, _Dragon_?! A Dragon Grimm?!" She asked, somewhat surprised.

Qrow tried to say something but was cut off by him coughing up a large amount of blood.

"Tch. Internal bleeding." She growled angrily, somehow quickly accepting the fact that a Grimm Dragon existed. "I'll have you taken back to the medics quickly."

"No!" Qrow managed to slap away her hand as the woman reached out to him though it sent lances of pain throughout his body. "You have to listen! The Dragon! It's, _evolving_ somehow! It's either gaining new abilities or strengthening what it had before! I'm not sure which or even how, but you can see it! Every minute more increases its strength and durability! All of the moves it was pulling out is clunky to the extreme! Big and powerful yes, but easy to dodge! But as time passes it's showing more control over each power! The fire breath that was originally a plasma beam became large fireballs, and soon rapid fire attacks that it can shoot out! The Grimm summoning it does went from a conscious action only able to produced from wings to one that could be done unconsciously through its blood!'

"Which means it's not a power that it had from the beginning due to the original lack of control." The woman muttered in shock. "The power is one that it has only recently gained and is learning to control at a rapid pace! If it had the power from the very beginning, it wouldn't be clumsy with the ability at all! It would be an instinctive response and control!"

Qrow nodded tiredly, every action exhausting his already taxed body. "If the battle is dragged out, the Grimm could get more powers or be able to completely control what it already as! You… have to finish it quickly." Exhausted from the action of conveying the necessary information, the Unlucky Reaper slumped onto the ground, his eyes starting to close.

The woman widened her eyes in shock as she processed all the information. That… wasn't possible. "Salem wouldn't allow something like that to exist! It could eventually become even more powerful than her! Qrow? Qrow!"

It was no use though. Qrow had fallen asleep, most likely unconscious from the blood loss and the adrenaline shooting through his body finally starting to fade.

"Rrrrgh, damn it!" The woman cursed as she drew her sword and sliced open space before picking up Qrow and carelessly chucking him through. Vernal would get him to the medics in the camp. She wasn't idiotic enough to assume that Qrow was to be left for dead after coming through one of her portals.

While Qrow's theory made some sense, it had rather obvious holes in it. With the size and power of it the Dragon must be well over a century old, most likely closing in on a millenium by now. If it was constantly evolving and either gaining new powers or strengthening its old ones, it should have easily been able to burn Vale to the ground with an errant breath, never mind actually trying to destroy it. But that in turn led to a dark thought if Qrow's theory was right.

Something, somehow massively boosted the power of the Grimm. Raven wasn't sure if that applied to every Grimm or just the Dragon, but either effect wasn't good.

Hell, she wasn't even sure if Qrow was right or if the brainless fool was talking nonsense out of blood loss, but… just in case she would try to end the beast as quickly as possible. She placed a mask over her face and went out of the collapsing building to see her prey stumbling around and roaring in pain.

As she appraised the beast before her, she couldn't help but be slightly awed at the state it was left in. Not being able to move properly and Harbinger dug deeply into its left eye, the Dragon supposed to be a killer of humans was instead grievously injured by one. Qrow always did surpass expectations of a normal huntsman like that.

The Grimm being summoned by an abyss colored portal started to cover the landscape but they were obviously not at full power. No doubt Qrow had slayed a large number of them. She was slightly stronger than him in a one on one combat, not using her more mystical powers obviously, but even she would admit that Qrow was far better against dealing with a multitude of opponents than she was and most likely would ever be, his Semblance coming into play for him there. Again, when restraining herself to only pure swordsmanship.

No matter though. At the end of the day, she was far stronger than Qrow when using all of her abilities. She would be able to deal with the Dragon Grimm easily, and then she would take care of its more numerous and weaker companions. Actually… she would just do it all at once.

An eldritch light filled her eyes, burning like the flames of hell.

"Heed my call." She muttered softly. "Requiem of a Maelstrom."

She lifted her sword skyward, light radiating off of her dust blade. She then raked it downwards, her entire essence commanding the sky to respond to the whims of a mortal. It should have been impossible, an absurd and laughable thought that something would actually happen just from someone swiping at the heavens.

Then the heavens responded in turn.

Millions of volts of energy gathered into the sky and struck downwards, a jagged yellow and white scar ripping through the sky as if God himself came to smite all of her opponents. The deafening sound of thunder roared endlessly as lightning bolts rained down from the sky like droplets in a storm, eviscerating the landscape and converting the army of black monsters into even blacker ashes.

The Dragon screamed in pain as it was assaulted by half a dozen lightning bolts itself, electricity dancing through its body and its organs rupturing in near synchronization.

Gazing across the scarred and empty battleground filled with hundreds of Grimm a few seconds ago the woman gave a soft yet sadistic smirk at the barely alive Dragon, not even sweating from the use of such a godlike power.

Raven Branwen has entered the battlefield.

* * *

 _This is the story of a boy._

 _A boy born full of life, flush like a forest._

 _And just like a forest…_

 _It was all burned away. In less than an hour, a single fire managed to burn away everything._

 _Scarred and scorched earth was all that remained of the land once filled with life._

 _However a man ran into the fire and was able to save him. He planted an idea, a seedling that could eventually grow into a beautiful tree. An ideal._

 _To become a Hero of Justice._

 _Watered by his last promise to the man before he passed away, Shirou Emiya's fate was decided. His life did not matter. For as long as he lived he would take care of others, placing them above his own wellbeing._

 _For millions, billions, of versions of Shirou Emiya throughout the Multiverse this would be their life goal. A twisted sense that allowed the scorched earth of a Reality Marble to bloom in their soul._

 _However, for him, a miracle occurred._

 _Another tree bloomed in the scorched earth of his life. A Sakura tree._

 _He observed it bloom, mesmerized by its beauty. Yet he could feel, deep in his heart, that something was wrong about it._

 _It took multiple years but eventually he finally looked inside the tree, chipping away at the unblemished bark on the outside to gaze within rather than gaze at its outside._

 _What he saw horrified him, filling him with revulsion. Inky blackness flowed within the tree, rising and bubbling like acidic tar._

 _The tree was corrupted. Poisoned. Not normal poison either, but one of All The World's Evils._

 _Any other man would have given up on the tree, allow it to die. A shame, they would have said, but there was nothing that could be done. Better for the world to let it just die, a mercy killing._

 _Ignoring its corruption, Shirou Emiya instead took care of it. He couldn't stand to see something filled with such life in suffering._

 _However he could only take care of one of those trees. He had to give up on one of them. Either the one Kiritsugu gave him as a child, the one that became his entire reason for existence, or the one that somehow crept into his heart, the poisoned beauty._

 _If he chose the one Kiritsugu gave then it might be possible to become a True hero of Justice, one who won't let lives be lost. But if he chose that, then the tree who just wanted so_ badly _to just live with him would die._

Unacceptable.

 _And so he chose the Sakura tree. The ideal, the dream of becoming a Hero of Justice, died. In the end, he decided to live to protect that Sakura._

 _He had a feeling Kiritsugu would be happy with that._

 _He gave it all he had and in the end, where it was closest to dying, he saved her. Even when she cried out for death, pleaded with him to kill her, he refused to and saved her._

 _However she was still in pain._

A corpse moved. It gripped the ground, fingers digging into the scorched soil it knew so well from so long ago.

 _The tree that was his life… it was still hurting. He was separated from her though._

It was impossible though. To move after what he's done within the past twenty four hours, no, just the past twelve hours was beyond the power of a human. The body just wasn't built for such strenuous activities, a human not fit to be fighting against Heroic Spirits, a God, or for using Excalibur, much less all of them in the same day. He just couldn't. Not anymore. Maybe if he could rest for a day or so he could but not now. Not after all that.

 _He couldn't save her. No human strength could._

So he couldn't rely on his human strength. It was good that he wasn't human.

Green iridescent light flowed up his arms, mana reinforcing his body even as the circuits inside of him cried out in pain to stop. Shirou felt like he was boiling from the inside out, knowing he was toeing the line that separated life and death.

Even through the pain, Shirou grinned.

If he couldn't rely on his human body, then he would force his body to ascend beyond pure human strength. If he was toeing the line of life and death, then good because he belonged there. After all, Shirou wasn't a human.

He was a magus, even if he was a third rate one. And a Magus walks with death.

Shirou roared with pain as he pushed himself off the ground, stumbling and catching himself on a tree.

He gazed across the scarred battlefield in stunned horror. What _happened_ here?! He knew it wasn't like that when he came, and he knew for a fact that he didn't do this.

He pointedly ignored the stupidly large but narrow trench in the ground, one that looks like it could go down for a kilometer, denying that it could have happened due to him unleashing Excalibur. Well, more pleading than anything.

He had just wanted to destroy the incarnation of all evil! He didn't want all of this!

Wait, where were the monsters that were coming after him? He didn't see any of those around.

Ah he remembered. Some silver light appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the monsters, along with somehow destroying the metal on him and also destroying… Excalibur…

 _Wait what?_

No. No no no no no. That wasn't possible. That was _not_ possible. Excalibur could not break. It was absurd to even think about, and his relationship with Excalibur was extremely intimate.

After being nearly killed a couple hundred times with it at the start of the War, he could testify that… wait.

What did he mean by being nearly killed at the _start_ of the war? Saber was his Servant back then and not yet corrupted by Angra Mainyu. A Servant like her would never try to kill her master.

Though it was understandable, he supposed. After all it was supposed to be a war between Servants and since he was Servant Archer it would only make sense to- gah!

Shirou clutched his head in pain even as he tried to think through what was going on, ignoring how his nose started to bleed.

How long had this been going on?

 _Shirou smirked, a face that was not unfamiliar to whoever had seen the crimson garbed Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War._

 _He was going to die here-like he did thousands, millions of times in the act of being Alaya's dog though he never was._

"Tch! Damn." Shirou muttered angrily while glaring at his bulky and abnormal left arm.

He was acting like Archer, or at least thinking like him. Replicating his emotions and gaining his memories, no doubt coming from the bleeding effect caused by having EMIYA's arm attached to him. It might allow him to project the Noble Phantasms inside of Archer's Unlimited Blade Works, but it honestly was more of a hindrance than a help.

Shirou grunted in pain when he felt the blades of Unlimited Blade Works start to stitch together once again, building from the feet up.

Shirou clenched his eyes close for just a moment. Too many things were happening back to back. The Kaleidoscope, Excalibur breaking, the silver light, the metal of Unlimited Blade Works somehow dissolving, the time curse and-

Wait. What happened to the time curse?

It was one of those things that you didn't notice until it was gone. The feeling of a noose around his neck suddenly letting him go after seemingly years of it partially cutting off his breathing, him getting used to the feeling of ever increasing danger to the point that he was used to it. It left him off balance, to have it gone.

Shirou focused, trying to clue out what the Light did to him. Nothing came to mind immediately, no solution jumping out at him from his admittedly meager Thaumaturgy training. He grit his teeth together, gnashing them angrily. It felt like he had all the pieces yet they weren't fitting together, as if he was a mere child trying to shove a cylinder into a square hole.

" _Isn't it obvious?"_ A voice within his mind snarked towards him, reminding him of Archer. Shirou immediately hated it. _"Think about something other than swords fool. What does the time space curse, Excalibur, and the Reality Marble have in common?"_

Shirou thought for a minute before widening his eyes. "Thaumaturgy." He breathed out softly. "The time curse came from the backlash of improperly using the Second True Magic. The swords forming are from Avalon's healing being influenced due to the Reality Marble, another product of Thaumaturgy. But that means… Excalibur wasn't broken due to the sheer power of the Silver Light, but was because it was a projection! The Light somehow dismissed the projection!"

Shirou frowned after a second of thinking about it. "But that doesn't account for those monsters also being killed by it. Unless those were also somehow made out of Thaumaturgy also… but even assuming that the monsters were made out of Thaumaturgy that wouldn't account for the Time space curse." That wasn't mere Thaumaturgy, even if the definition of it was stretched massively to even include _his_ Reality Marble. It was the backlash of a True Magic, something that shouldn't be affected by any mortal. Hell, even immortals shouldn't be able to overpower the effects of True Magic."

Nothing was making sense. But then again they didn't really have to, Shirou realized with a sigh. What he set out to do hadn't changed from what the Light did to him, nor what it's effect actually was.

He had already accomplished destroying the Grail. He had originally planned on dying after destroying the Grail, sure that Excalibur would kill him, but thankfully that didn't come to pass. He _had_ however barged into another world which was on the verge of extinction. He needed information if he had any chance of getting back to his own world, to get back to Sakura. If he could help them somehow end their Apocalypse then all the better.

Shirou tried to analyze the battleground he was in along with the enemies. He turned to the right, making sure to not just rely on his sight but also his other senses.

Shirou froze when he saw the Dragon, a black behemoth that could probably annihilate him with a careless step. His reinforced eyes could catch the sight of… was that a _bird?!_ Sweet Akasha, what the hell was this planet if a bird was fighting against a Dragon of all things?! What abilities did it have?!

Shirou watched dumbfounded as the bird transformed into a _human_ and, after a half second, swung a scythe- _Harbinger_ , if the information he was getting was right- into the eye of the beast.

…

Oh. So _that's_ what the bird could do.

He shook his head and started to once again analyze the battleground, sadly immune to such physics defying abilities after the War. Shirou eyed the flashes of fire blasts and explosions coming from somewhere to his left, rather deep in the forest now. He could catch glimpses of weapons glinting as the battle continually moved deeper into the trees.

 _Crocea Mors. Crescent Rose. Jingu and Ruyi Bang._

Information flashed through his mind, though the terms confused him. No doubt due to the alien resources on the new planet, or perhaps similar items with different names. He could at least trust that these people were rather friendly and shouldn't try to kill him if he appeared in front of them.

Shirou started running towards the fight, trying to ignore the sounds of thunder rumbling at the back of him. While the man facing the Dragon seemed to be in a far more dire circumstances, the wielders of the weapons he had just analyzed were _kids_ , even younger than him. He would try to save them first before facing the Dragon.

Besides, he had just barreled into their world. It would be rude not to introduce himself in the meanwhile.

…

God, he hoped they spoke Japanese.

* * *

Omake: Kirei makes a horrible mistake.

The rain poured down, soaking him though he didn't mind all that much. How could he? After all, the tears running down the young girls face provided him _far_ too much enjoyment. He wondered how much more could he savor that face of pain.

"He's in a better place now, in God's grace and Heaven along with every great soul that has ever been born in this world." He comforted her, his kind words not reflecting his actual thoughts and emotions.

The young girl just bent her head lower, trying to disguise her tears in the pouring rain and miserably failing. "Shut up, you fake priest. I don't know why Father ever took you on as an apprentice."

Kirei just shrugged in response. "I myself do not know the reason behind Tokiomi-sama's decision Rin. Even so, I promise you. I followed your father's orders to join the War, and followed his will to the end."

Kirei did not lie. He would never perform such a crass action. He did, in fact, follow Tokiomi's will for him to join the Grail war. And what was more in spirit of the Grail war than killing a fellow Master?

Oh, Kirei relished in the memory of Tokiomi's face at the moment Kirei had stabbed him with the knife the fool _gave_ to him. The broken confusion leading to understanding and then fury… oh, it was beautiful.

He wondered how Rin would react when she inevitable learns that he killed her father. He barely restrained laughing out loud, mindful of the implications of laughing at a funeral. Oh God above, if his mere undeveloped imagination could send such shudders of pleasure running through his body he feared that he might not be able to take the beauty reality would present to him. There were simply so _many_ flavors of pain, and while he was new to the field of sadism, Kirei would fully admit that he had a very specific taste. While he could easily cause some pain by kidnapping some poor soul and using the knowledge granted to him by years of experience being an exorcist, he would not debase himself to the point of gorging on common murder like the Master of Caster did.

No, he would ensure one of Tokiomi's wishes was granted by protecting his daughter. Oh, he could imagine his old master turning in his grave right now.

Kirei had to admit though, he was slightly impatient to seeing Rin's suffering. How could he sweeten the pot in order to ensure he would not try to reveal the circumstance behind her father's death too early, which would in turn causing her suffering to not become a true work of art?

A grimace tugged at Kirei's normally inexpressive face. No, that wouldn't do it all. Rather, how could he make her suffering be even greater, to take the concept of pain and horror to new heights?

An idea sprung to Kirei's mind and he had to bite his lip hard enough to draw blood in order to not cackle in the middle of the ceremony, as if he was a thoughtless hyena.

The only thing that could be better than her Father's apprentice being the one to kill her father, would be to realize that her Father's Servant himself was the one to cause him to entertain the notion in the first place. That Tokiomi caused his own demise from the simple fact of trying to win the Grail War and achieve opening a pathway to Akasha, that her father's moral lead to his own downfall… yes, very few things in the world could beat that.

Yes. After a day or two, Kirei would take Rin to Gilgamesh. How that meeting would go, he didn't quite know. It was sure to be rather interesting at the minimum. Hopefully Gilgamesh would be in a rather accepting mood to agree to his selfish request. Though he somehow had doubts that the King of Heroes would refuse him. After all, he too would no doubt enjoy such a play and would be interested in viewing such an ending.

 **[Two days later]**

Kirei could barely restrain his grin as he led Rin into the heart of the Church. The girl in question was gazing around warily at her surroundings, as if he would try to harm her or laid some hidden booby traps that would try to kill her.

He shook his head in mock disparity and opened a door, leading to a room that was decorated in pure gold, with red trimmings and decorative marks glaring out.

Similar to the room's appearance, an extremely handsome and half-naked man laid down on the coach in a casual state. With the divine blood of the Gods flowing through him, it wouldn't be a joke that the 'man' was essentially sculpted to be perfection incarnate. With his blond hair and red tattoos, Kirei wouldn't hesitate to say that every woman in the world would flock to him with adoring eyes. Including the ones not even interested in men.

His haughty gaze slowly traced its way from Kirei to the small girl beside him, the child in question stiffening under his gaze. "So," Gilgamesh drawled. "You are the spawn of Tokiomi that I've heard so much about."

The seven year old bristled, raising herself to her full 'intimidating' four feet in height. She tried to glare at the Heroic Spirit but unfortunately for her it was more akin to a puppy pouting. "My name is Rin Tohsaka!" She defended. "Not 'spawn'!"

Kirei's eyes widened and he held his breath in anticipation. Hopefully Gilgamesh would not murder the young girl where she stood. He berated himself for being caught up in his enjoyment and not fully thinking things through before inviting Rin here.

Gilgamesh lifted an eyebrow, his expression showing one of amusement rather than insult. "Oh? An infant not even reaching a decade of age has more pride than her father before her?" The man rumored to be two third God took a slow sip of his wine as Rin refused to drop her gaze from his crimson eyes, no matter how tempting the idea was. "I admit, I am pleasantly surprised this. To think a mongrel such as Tokiomi could bring up such a child is astounding, though I suppose it isn't exactly difficult to have more self worth than that sniveling fool."

Rin felt somewhat uncomfortable and relieved at the same time. It was as if she had passed some test unknown to her, one that was important in some way. Akin to the Rin that would come years from now, the young girl acted the exact same way to an uncomfortable situation she was in. That is, to bluster and bluff even if she didn't really know what he was saying.

"What's your name stranger-san?" Rin asked inquisitively.

Gilgamesh's expression turned to one of strange neutrality. "And you believe you are worthy of knowing my name mongrel? You believe too much in your own self worth. I have already given you a pardon of staring directly at me, something that would be an immediate death sentence in Uruk. Such audacity cannot be excused twice, no matter your age or class. For all is equal under the King, no matter if you are born of man or God."

Rin flinched and looked downwards, unconsciously deferring to Gilgamesh as the greatest authority in the room.

Gilgamesh gazed down at the young girl before sighing. "I cannot fault you for wanting to know the name of the One True King, though ignorance is a paltry excuse for being unaware of it already. My name is Gilgamesh, the King of the Gardens you walk upon."

"Gil-gaa-maysu?" She tried before grimacing. No, that wasn't it. Rin looked up to the King of Heroes once again and realized something. If his name was too long and difficult, then she should help him and give a shorter name.

Gil? No, that was too friendly and familiar. The man bore an impressive stature, one that even she knew easily overwhelmed her father's. Gil ojee-sama? No, he wasn't old. Rather, he seemed to be in the height of his youth.

Gil Jiji? No, that sounded weird. Gil oni-sama? No. What about…

"Uncle Gil?" She seemed to ask, unintentionally saying it out loud. 'Yeah!' She thought. It seemed pretty catchy, or at least fitting if nothing else.

Only after a few seconds she realized she had said it out loud. Her face burned crimson as she bowed her head in shame. Only after a few seconds did she actually peak upwards to see his frozen expression.

"What," Gilgamesh breathed out. "What did you just call me?"

Kirei was in a similar state of shock. He couldn't help but think he had just made a horrible mistake.

 **[10 years later]**

Counter Guardian EMIYA sighed as he 'floated' down the hallway in his astral form, following Rin as she started to call someone.

He had been summoned with his memory intact, a rare occurrence that he enjoyed. However, with that he could easily spot out some notable differences in Rin's household. The amount of wealth it displayed able to easily overshadow what was in his memory was one of them. The fact that it looked _completely_ different with the insane amount of gold in there was one other thing.

'Perhaps,' He pondered. 'Is this a timeline where Rin somehow won a lottery or two, or maybe able to control her land and make money rather than Kirei giving it to the Church?' He didn't really know, and he doubted that it would actually affect him in anyway.

What he did freeze up at was the dozens of Noble Phantasms in glass cases in the hallway.

'What the hell?' He wondered in disbelief. 'How?! There's more Noble Phantasms in here than what the _Clocktower_ would have!"

He turned his gaze to Rin who seemed to finally be able to call Kirei. "Fake Priest. I assume that you already know I summoned Archer for the War? Of course you do. Give the phone to Uncle Gil."

Archer didn't know how it was possible, but he somehow choked while he was in astral form. 'Uncle Gil? No. No, please, for the love of Akasha please tell me I'm wrong.'

"Hey Uncle Gil!" Rin chirped happily, only to turn into a grimace a minute later. "What? Of course I'm skipping school! I was chosen as a participant in a magical war that has a high chance of me dying and the only way to prevent that is to kill six other people! What do you mean that's not a good enough reason?! Yes, Sakura's at school but what does she have to do with it? She wasn't chosen! What do you mean exactly?! … What do you mean you're coming here right now?"

Archer sighed in relief and almost burst out laughing. Of course it wasn't Gilgamesh! There was no way the King of Uruk would be _mothering_ Rin of all people! The possibility was so low that it wasn't even worth considering.

A giant golden portal as tall as he was formed out of thin air and through it Gilgamesh lazily strutted out.

Archer froze as 'Uncle Gil' turned to him, fear flickering through his body and clouding his mind for just a moment before he calmed himself. He'd been through worse in Alaya's service, he could pull through this.

Gilgamesh dismissed him, however, and turned to Rin instead. "Just what," Gilgamesh demanded. "Do you think you are doing Rin? You're being childish."

"I'm in a war!" She shouted hysterically, looking as if she was about to run for her life. Archer personally agreed with that option. "That should be able to excuse me for at least two weeks of no school! You're the one being childish."

"Two weeks?!" Questioned Gilgamesh. "You're putting your acceptance to college at risk! And me being childish? Says the one who was begging me to use Sha Naqba Imuru **(The Omniscient Omnipotent star)** to find out what the 'secret' to the Krabby Patty Formula was and to use the Gate of Babylon to give you a ticket to your favorite emo punk band!"

"It was just a stage!"

"That's not what you said while trying to convince me to get you black lipstick!"

"Damn it Uncle Gil! Not in front of my Servant!"

"Watch your mouth young lady!"

Archer watched the argument with a baffled expression. Gilgamesh… _Gilgamesh_ … was mothering Rin…

 _Damn it Kirei, this is somehow your fault. That or my E-rank luck._

Archer was legitimately considering slitting his own throat right here and now. Yes, eternal enslavement to Alaya might be bad and he hated killing people, but this… simply wasn't worth it. He would rather go back.

Though he had to admit, it was impressive seeing Rin somehow countering charisma rank A+. Though that might just be from pure unadulterated teenage angst somehow beating out the skills of legendary kings and warriors. He could never really tell with Rin.

"Sakura would never do such a thing!"

"Stop comparing me to Sakura all the time!"

He took it back. It was _definitely_ teenage angst.

* * *

 **Hey guys! Did ya miss me?**

' **Spontaneously combusts from the pure fury directed at him.'**

 **AGH! THE FIRES OF TEENAGERS TRYING TO ESCAPE REALITY AND FUCK UP THAT IS THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SYSTEM! IT BURNS! IT** _ **BBBUURRRRNNNNSSSSS!**_

 **To be completely fair I have a semi-legitimate excuse. I started JoJo… and I caught up with JoJo. Fucking christ, the show is stupid and riddled with plot holes but I love it anyways. Also, I'm halfway sure Joseph is actually immortal considering the shit he's going through. I was also watching some other anime.**

 **By the way, Sha Naqba Imuru is a Noble Phantasms that gives Gilgamesh omnisciency. Omnisciency. Is that a word?**

 **Whatever. Gil is actually Omniscient. Yeah. So theoretically he actually does know the secret to the Krabby Patty formula.**

 **He's Plankton's wet dreams.**

 **So to fans of my other work, I'm gonna finish up the arc of Beacon's Fall, should be done in a chapter or two, and then get Crimson Purgatory to 60,000+ words before I come back. That'll be fun.**

 **If you have any questions then please just review. It'll be easy to answer your questions then.**

 **Oh and if you're curious about the Dragon's new power and Ruby's Silver eyes, you'll find out the answer to the first one in next chapter. Second one… you're gonna have to wait a while. Theorize and just send it to me in review format. To those who get it right, you're a fucking God. Because there should be no god damn way you should get it right now.**

 **Sorry for being late. I'll try not do such a thing again.**

 **REVIEW! HAVE A NICE TIME! THE NEXT CHAPTER SHOULDN'T TAKE… what, three months? More? Not sure, but I'LL BE QUICKER! GOOD NIGHT!**

 **AND YES, I AM A REVIEW WHORE!**


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